e-Forex Magazine July 2002

FX – The Wild West of Capitalism?

Foreword

Heering Ligthart argues that a truly global market such as foreign exchange probably cannot be regulated, but individual market participants can and should be....show more

A crucial time for portals.

Leader

Now is a key time in the development of multi-bank portals and Brian Maccaba believes that in the future they will become the chief method of price discovery for clients....show more

Currency Management – A Paradigm Shift.

Case Study

Who provides the best FX execution? Christopher Cruden from Tamiso, the New York based Currency Manager outlines how a “strategic alliance” has led them to some interesting answers....show more

TTL – A case study in eFX development.

Case Study

Peter Moss describes the lessons that were learned from the experience of Tullet & Tokyo Liberty plc in developing their e-commerce, hybrid and electronic broking solutions....show more

(Real) Trends in e-trading - coming to a floor near you.

Features

Tomorrows winners in the world of FX trading will be those offering tangible value to their customers and not just fancy web-sites with bells and whistles states Bill Moran....show more

eTrading : an opportunity to improve OTC market mechanisms.

FOCUS

Carlo Kolzer explains how new web-based technology has the potential to improve buy-side access to liquidity by reducing credit risk related restrictions....show more

FX Prime Brokerage - breaking the credit lock.

FOCUS

The development of FXPB represents a revolutionary change to the structure of FX trading and credit relationships and offers many benefits to all participants in the FX market says Lori Mirek....show more

TWIST – an update.

Features

We ask Tom Buschman, who is leading the TWIST industry standard initiative, for another update on its progress....show more

What role can SWIFT play in facilitating electronic FX trading?

Features

Patrick de Courcy discusses the broad role that SWIFT can play in helping to define and implement the next generation of generic standards for the FX market....show more

The role of single-bank FX systems in the evolution of online FX trading.

Viewpoint

Richard Estes outlines why he believes the continued success of single bank trading systems is playing a strategic role in the growth of online FX....show more

STP:dealing with the myths.

Features

The importance of the benefits that STP can bring to your business cannot be overlooked argues Vinny Lisanti....show more

Trading Forex & Money Markets via the Internet.

e-FX Industry Report

Armin Dahl and Gerald Kutschke provide a summary of the results from the recent KPMG Consulting AG survey taken from amongst DAX-100 companies....show more

Legal Issues and Patent related issues. What threats to FX eCommerce?

Features

Patents can provide protection for developers of new eFX systems but can also pose a threat, particularly the business method patent. Ari Laakkonen examines the issues....show more

with Joe Norena Managing Director, Head of Global Liquidity Services at Deutsche Bank

e-Forex Interview

Joe Norena Managing Director, Head of Global Liquidity Services, Deutsche Bank...show more

Barclays Capital FX Trader- Leveraging Innovative Technology

News

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Global CLS Bank Settlement Service Links Market With Vendor Registration Programme

News

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ICor Brokerage Conquers Asia/Pacific - readies for European Launch

News

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Standard Chartered launches escape

News

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Merrill Lynch GFX enhances client service

News

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Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein announces two new e-features for FX clients

News

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JPMorgan expands its e-commerce capabilities

News

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HSBC delivers enhanced e-trading functionality

News

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Bloomberg FX Enhances STP Capabilities

News

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FairEx’s Innovation wins Infocomm Awards

News

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Instinet and Citibank Announce Alliance to form The Instinet FX Cross

News

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UBS Warburg launches FX Trader “Lite” and enhances FX Option Trader

News

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SG launches new version of Idealforex

News

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GFI Launches FENICS FX 2002

News

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FXmicropay – changing the pricing paradigm of foreign exchange

News

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Royal Bank of Scotland signs on to Money Market Connect (MM ConnectSM)

News

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Higher Autodealing Limits for UBS Warburg

News

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360T to offer commercial paper trading

News

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Cognotec launches FXall DIRECT

News

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FXaLL INTEGRATES WITH FXpress SYSTEM

News

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The healthy future of the FX market as shown by the BIS report

Foreword

Godfried De Vidts, President of the ACI, looks for the reasons behind the improved market turnover highlighted in the recent BIS 2004 results....show more

The FX distribution model – Online FX forcing tough decisions

Leader

Robin Poynder looks at some of the difficult problems facing banks in looking for the most efficient methods of distributing their transactional capability in the new eCommerce environment....show more

FX Portals – segmenting the market?

Marketplace

Each FX trading portal has distinctive features attracting a different client base. James Kemp looks at whether they are segmenting the FX market and what overall effect that might have....show more

Maturing eFX - providing the foundation for broader e-solutions

Features

Shane Galligan discusses the changing eFX needs of the buy-side and what effect this is having in driving demands on the sell-side to develop new, broader e-solutions....show more

What is Best Execution in the Foreign Exchange market?

Features

There is some confusion surrounding the idea of Best Execution in the FX market. Chip Lowry shows how tricky it is to define and the difficulty to empirically prove it....show more

Online Asset Management in motion

Features

Charles-Henri Sabet outlines how the Internet revolution has brought lower trading costs and real-time information to liberate the investor and level the playing field for the manager of funds....show more

eFX and the Front Office – Asset Managers embrace trade OMS

Features

Susannah Quirion shows how, in the near future, asset managers should expect to see a complete automation of the FX process, with more deeply integrated OMS technology and functionality....show more

Online FX dealing – Building efficiencies between subsidiaries and Group Treasury

Features

James Hodge looks at where the corporate demand for Online Trading and STP Platforms is coming from and how American and European firms may differ in their use of these platforms....show more

The electronic trading of derivatives – is it here at last?

Features

Derivative volumes continue to grow and Tom Binks explains how he and many of his industry colleagues expect to see a continued migration of business from voice to screen based trading....show more

FX Option pricing – developing an online capability

Features

Nicolas de Breteuil looks at the benefits of being able to offer an electronic Options trading platform and the sort of functionality it should offer....show more

Component-based platforms – offering another choice for eFX

Features

Aviv Handler demonstrates how taking an asset-neutral, service-based component approach to trading systems represents a sustainable way of ensuring competitive service in the FX business....show more

High frequency automated FX trading

Retail Forex Client

The concept of automated trading has attracted rapidly growing interest in recent years. Andy Webb looks at a key focus for this growing interest which is high frequency autotrading....show more

Aggregation of portal & single bank liquidity

Viewpoint

David Ogg discusses how the aggregation of portal and single bank liquidity will provide a new paradign for improving eFX....show more

Refco: using Currenex to meet the demands of an extensive customer base.

Case Study

Refco: using Currenex to meet the demands of an extensive customer base....show more

e-Forex Case Study : The Trader Notification System

Case Study

A technology to bring voice brokers in the FX arena into the 21st century...show more

The e-Forex Surgery: Online FX Prime Brokerage

The e-Forex Surgery

Stephen Dispenza answers questions about FX Prime Brokerage....show more

Exceptions processing in FX trading - automation is reducing costs

Features

As financial institutions strive for STP it’s important to keep in mind that it cannot be achieved without straight-through exception processing (STEP). Colin Day investigates....show more

Spotlight - The new FX trading guidelines from two leading Australian industry associations.

Spotlight

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Retail meets Wholesale FX: A growing convergence

e-FX Industry Report

With both sides of the market converging, Mark Galant looks at how all FX clients will gain equal access to superior service and technology. ...show more

The changing needs of the retail equity investor:the emerging importance of FX research in investment decisions

Log-Off

Shane Smith talks about the changing needs of the retail equity investor and the emerging importance of FX research in investment decisions....show more

Online Product and Service Differentiation.With UBS, Bank of America, Handelsbanken and Deutsche Bank.

e-Forex Roundtable

The key to client acquisition and satisfaction 4 major FX providers discuss the key questions....show more

Delivering Online FX Research & Analytics

FOCUS

The new Forex trader: New tools, classic analysis Raghee Horner looks at how traders can best take advantage of the benefits that the Internet and advanced web technology brings....show more

FORUM: Delivering state-of-the-art online FX Research and Analytics

FOCUS

In our FORUM 4 major players discuss issues surrounding Online FX Research & Analytics....show more

With Tom Roche, Managing Director, Global Head of eCommerce & Agency Treasury Services, The Royal Bank of Scotland Financial Markets

e-Forex Interview

With Tom Roche, Managing Director, Global Head of eCommerce & Agency Treasury Services, The Royal Bank of Scotland Financial Markets...show more

EBS Trader to be fully integrated on Bloomberg

News

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CLS Bank live with four additional currencies

News

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TraderTools develops "AutoFill" for OMS

News

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Trading Technologies & FlexTrade to offer Hotspot FXism

News

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Calyon upgrades global FX Trading platform

News

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CME FX on Reuters Launches

News

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BTM strengthens the functionality of FX@BTM

News

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FXall launches Altair

News

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New Position Management Tool announced by Currenex

News

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Reuters announces next generation transaction strategy

News

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Fortis Bank selects TRS from Telerate and MarketXS

News

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GFI to Connect to UBS FX Option Trader

News

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RBS offers web based IAS39 Toolkit

News

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SEB to use FFastFill’s managed service

News

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Calyon becomes latest EBS Prime Bank

News

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Logicscope introduces TradeSTP Deal Notification Product

News

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IFX in US acquisition

News

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Reuters TBS achieves trading record

News

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ActForex introduces WinTraderâ„¢

News

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Lava launches LavaFX

News

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Online FX charting service added to HSBCnet

News

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UNIBANKA selects ICYFX

News

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Ericsson joins buyside users of SD-FX

News

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State Street signs 5 Canadian banks to post-trade FX tool

News

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Wachovia delivers flexible solutions

News

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Trader Gamesâ„¢ launches real-time online FX game

News

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WestLB goes live with Gissing Software’s ConteX MCS

News

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Baxter-FX and ICY announce agreement

News

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GFT’s DealBook® FX 2 to feature multiple currencies

News

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MarketXS Introduces TradeNet

News

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FXpress releases FIRSTâ„¢ Treasury workstation

News

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Cognotec top for seventh year

News

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The challenge for FX trading systems – Continuous availability

Features

Rajeev Kotyan looks at the impact of downtime in the eFX marketplace and the two most prominent approaches to minimising it....show more

Bloomberg Introduces FX Fixing Rates

News

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The Bank of New York upgrades iConfirm system

News

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360T® reports soaring FX Spot service

News

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Digitec commences FX Spot pricing initiative

News

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Dukascopy offers a technology solution for Central Bank interventions

News

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RBS expands offering to Hedge Fund community

News

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FFastFill Signs RBC Capital Markets for CME FX on Reuters service

News

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Nordea improves electronic FX trading

News

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FXDD launches automated currency trading platform

News

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FNX Solutions rolls out new real-time cross asset blotter

News

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CalPERS selects LavaFX for Foreign Exchange trading

News

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eSignal offers Forex content (and free strategies)

News

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GAIN Capital group launches FOREXTrader

News

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Wall Street Systems announces eConfirmations capabilities

News

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Portware sees growth in client use of Algo FX

News

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Interbank FX launches new (GPS) Software

News

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360T® opens in New York and Singapore

News

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Traiana launches the Harmonyâ„¢ Allocation Service

News

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TraderTools to provide Software as a Service

News

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FXall goes live with Accelor

News

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Currenex extends order capabilities

News

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GL TRADE completes acquisition of FNX Solutions

News

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Evolution and diversification in FX over the past 3 years

Foreword

Godfried De Vidts looks back over the last 3 years since he took up the chair of the ACI....show more

Revolutionary transformation and extraordinary opportunity – Today’s electronic FX Market is changing everything

Leader

Ian Martin looks at how the digital nervous system of e-FX is transforming the FX market....show more

Electronic trading systems capture one half of global FX volume

e-FX Industry Report

Peter D’Amario reports on the remarkable increase in electronic forex trading activity over the past 12 months....show more

The exchange model and FX: weighing up the challenges

Marketplace

Anthony Scholfield examines the factors that may move the FX market towards an ‘exchange model’ providing an open architecture and aggregated “one stop” liquidity, algorithmic order processing and central clearing facilities....show more

The Internet: Can it really meet the future demands of e-FX?

Features

Nicholas Pratt sets out to discover whether there is a finite level to the internet’s capacity to support the future demands of e-FX....show more

The Internalisation model: helping the sell-side extend the e-FX value proposition

Features

James Kemp examines the drivers and impacts of the internalisation model....show more

Past and future evolution of online FX options trading

Features

Dr David Gershon outlines the evolutionary pathway leading towards online option trading...show more

Exploring derivative frontiers: extending the reach of electronic FX Option platforms

Features

Frances Maguire speaks to a selection of providers to explore the gradual climb towards fully automating the complexity of FX options....show more

Countdown to MiFID – are you compliant?

Standards

Chris Pickles examines compliance and other issues as we approach the run-up to the implementation of the directive later this year....show more

FX dips toes in Dark Pools

Features

Axel Pierron looks at how trading in dark pools, traditionally dominant in equities trading is also making its way to FX....show more

SWFX technology - servicing the Decentralised Swiss FX marketplace

The e-Forex Surgery

With Alain Broyon & Dr. Andre Duka....show more

Extending connectivity to meet the demands of latency sensitive FX Trading

Features

Mark Akass looks at why with the adoption and evolution of advanced trading strategies in the FX market, the importance of latency is the key question that will arise....show more

Data: threatening to derail the Algo FX bandwagon?

Algorithmic FX Trading

With Justyn Trenner, Jim O’Hagan, Yaacov Heidingsfeld and Dmitry Bourtov....show more

Addressing the challenges of Algorithmic FX trading

Algorithmic FX Trading

With UBS, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse....show more

Utilising FX algorithms to enable smart order routing

Algorithmic FX Trading

With Andrew Yao...show more

Central & Eastern Europe

Regional eFX Perspective

Heather McLean interviews major technology vendors and FX buy-side and sell-side players in the region....show more

Gauging the potential for online trading in leading emerging market currencies

FOCUS

Nicholas Pratt examines what prospects today’s leading emerging markets have to become an efficient and reliable online trading market place....show more

Leveraging local expertise and liquidity strategies to provide comprehensive e-commerce and e-FX services

FOCUS

Frances Maguire discovers how banks are using their own regional expertise to rapidly expand their e-FX services in key emerging markets....show more

FX Technology Forum: Delivering electronic FX trading channels to key Emerging Markets

Forum

With Wall Street Systems, Charles River Development, Eurobase International and Cognotec....show more

Retail Market Overview: China – More than a numbers game

Retail Forex Client

Steven Petillo evaluates the potential for the retail foreign exchange market in China and what’s shaping the electronic trading landscape in the country....show more

Adding a new dimension to measuring FX autotrading performance

Retail Forex Client

Greg Hay outlines how clients can now be provided with verified trading results taken from live accounts, to reduce the confusion facing Retail FX Traders when selecting trading systems to add to their portfolio....show more

Trading from a chart with Trade Companion and BGC

Case Study

...show more

Tradertalk

Tradertalk

With John. W. Holsinger, winner of the 2006 Robbins World Cup trading championship, FX division....show more

With Niels van Daatselaar, head of e-Commerce, Global Financial Markets, Rabobank International.

e-Forex Interview

Niels van Daatselaar Head of e-Commerce, Global Financial Markets, Rabobank International....show more

What holds the key to mainstream adoption of Algorithmic FX trading?

Under the Microscope

Bob McDowall discusses the themes of buy-side growth, technology challenges and reducing market resistance that may provide the key to mainstream adoption of Algorithmic trading in FX markets....show more

Features

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Financial Markets: Are we heading back to normality?

Foreword

Some economies are showing signs of recovery. Will it be sustainable? Will the financial markets industry find a way back to 'normality'? What will be the consequences for the FX markets? The financial crisis has highlighted just how little is known about the structure of banks' international balance sheets and other issues of interconnectedness. Nowadays we are all waiting for what the regulatory environment comes up with next.......show more

Standing at the crossroads: Why FX must reinvent the post trade process.

Leader

Jesse Drennan explains why post-trade processing in FX demands reinventing....show more

FX serves up a dish of connectivity spaghetti

Marketplace

Jon Vollemaere, co-Founder of FXecosystem shares some thoughts on low latency trading for FX and some pasta recipes. ...show more

FX Prime Brokerage: What does it take to be a provider of choice?

Features

The dramatic defaults of Lehman Brothers and AIG prompted a flight to quality in the FX prime brokerage market. Frances Maguire looks at what it takes to be a provider of choice in the current environment and in the future....show more

Deploying Proximity Hosting for Achieving Ultra-low Latency FX

Features

The drive by trading houses and boutiques to secure ultra-low latency solutions to FX market venues and their matching engines has been cranked up of late, with deployment of proximity hosting being a must-have offering. Roger Aitken examines the state of play in proximity hosting and co-location services, semantics aside....show more

Bunzl

Case Study

Bunzl is a FTSE 100 UK company with operations spanning the Americas, Europe and Australasia. The company has partnered with both customers and suppliers in providing outsourcing solutions and service oriented distribution. It supplies a broad range of internationally sourced products that are everyday essentials for its' customers to operate their businesses. Bunzl's revenue in 2008 was £4.2bn with operating profit of £245m. The company has around 13,000 employees worldwide and operates a centralised treasury department which acts as an in-house bank and is comprised of four people. The department carries out transaction hedging on behalf of subsidiaries and generally manages the foreign exchange and banking relationships of the Group. e-Forex talks to John Chamberlain, Treasury Manager in their treasury department....show more

Identifying the optimal combination of FX algorithms

Algorithmic FX Trading

The decision on whether or not to use FX algorithms is an easy one to make in today's market, however deciding which ones to use is a more difficult choice. For example, is it better to deploy an off-the-shelf algorithm or a customised solution? How much tailoring can be done with an off-the-shelf solution and how much work on the clients' side does customisation involve? Nick Pratt examines some of the key issues....show more

Leveraging Smart Order Routing for Best Execution in FX

Algorithmic FX Trading

In the electronic trading FX world, every application has its role. Aggregation tools are responsible for presenting a consolidated view of the market's far-flung liquidity. And the algorithms are the mathematical means by which traders can automate their increasingly sophisticated execution strategies. In between these two processes sits the smart order router (SOR) and its job is to direct the algorithms to the various liquidity sources collected by the aggregator....show more

FX sell-side perspectives on high frequency trading

Algorithmic FX Trading

Irene Aldridge discusses the mechanics, pros, cons and the implementation challenges of several key sell- side high-frequency strategies which can be applied to many securities, including FX....show more

Buying on Rumour and Selling on Fact: Twitter News Comes to Algo FX

Algorithmic FX Trading

Twitter, the social networking site, is fast catching on as a source of news for FX traders and other market participants, who can now feed 'tweets' into their algorithms in real-time to assist in making trading decisions. Roger Aitken explores....show more

Today's FX Market demands advanced technology

Viewpoint

The forex market has been changing rapidly, with the emergence of FX as a legitimate asset class for financial investment and speculation, the rapid growth of electronic marketplaces, and more recently, the introduction of algorithmic trading. These trends have pushed the technology curve, demanding more sophisticated tools to optimize results....show more

Gaining competitive advantage with FX Aggregation services

FOCUS

If what you see is truly what you get then it is little surprise that traders are investing heavily in FX aggregation. But, says Nicholas Pratt, with such a wide variety of products on offer, how do traders pick the most appropriate solution?...show more

MAP Regional Study - Cyprus: S.Platis – A driving force of FX Registration

Retail Forex Client

MAP S.Platis is an independent Cyprus-based centre of excellence in the support of financial institutions operating or wishing to operate in the European Union. The company is the leader in the field of registration of Banks and Investment Firms (IFs), including foreign exchange (FX) brokers and market makers in the European Union. The Managing Director, Dr. Stelios Platis, talks to e-Forex about the activities of the company and particularly its core, Financial Services Advisory (FSA), division....show more

Profile: Windsor Brokers - motivated to be an e-FX pioneer

Retail Forex Client

Windsor Brokers is a leading Cyprus-based investment firm that was established in 1988. The company provides a wide range of financial products such as Forex, Futures, Precious Metals, Indices, CFDs and Energies. Johny Abuaitah is Managing Director of the company and talks to e-Forex about its products and services and plans for future growth. ...show more

Tadawul FX Placing a premium on integrity

Retail Forex Client

e-Forex talks to Ramzi Chamat, CEO of Tadawul FX Ltd, a leading Swiss forex broker who recently relocated their headquarters to Cyprus....show more

New Release: MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform

Retail Forex Client

e-Forex has an exclusive interview with Alexander Saidullin, lead programmer of the new MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform...show more

Rules-based trading in Retail FX: getting the robots to do all the work

Retail Forex Client

There was a time when people dreamed of tomorrow’s world; a place where robots did all the work and humans sat around, directing operations and getting fat. For traders in electronic foreign exchange trading, that day is here. Rules-based trading in retail FX is now a robot-friendly zone. Heather McLean takes a look at what the major pundits in this industry have to say about the decision kick back and letting R2-D2 and C3PO take over....show more

Staying ahead of the pack - gaining exposure to Forex CFDs

Retail Forex Client

Contracts For Difference (CFD) trading is a vehicle that has been designed to enable investors to open either a long or short position in a synthetic contract that moves in line with the underlying security. The ability to use leverage affords the investor the opportunity to carry out trades using only a fraction of the underlying contract value. Heather McLean looks at what makes CFD trading an extremely attractive way of gaining significant exposure to securities such as FX, without the traditional obligation to fund the entire contract value. ...show more

With Giovanni Pozzi, CEO of JW Partners

Tradertalk

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From FX Regulation to FX Taxation

Foreword

The financial markets have never before seen so many reviews looking at fresh ways to regulate. Although Regulation and Taxation may no longer be real news to us, the frequency and attention given to the topic in public discussion is increasing....show more

Strengthening client relations with FX e-services

Leader

As many leading FX providers are now adopting more client-centric strategies when rolling out new electronic products and trading platforms, Nicholas Pratt explores in what ways electronic FX services can help improve and engender more productive client relationships....show more

Electronic trading tops 60% of Global FX trading volume

e-FX Industry Report

Strong growth in electronic trading activity last year pushed electronic foreign exchange volumes above 60% of the overall global FX market for the first time. ...show more

2011 Social Forex Awards

Awards

Roger Aitken reviews the ‘2011 Social Forex Awards’ held this February in central London – which were the first of their kind....show more

Making sense with CORTEXFX

Platform Profile

The CORTEX brand is synonymous with 2 concepts - Intelligence and Advantage. Just as the CORTEX of the brain controls the senses, CORTEXFX, (which is the first product to be launched under BNP Paribas new electronic trading brand) allows BNP Paribas clients to take full control of their FX trading environment using a feature rich, stable, platform. Thomas Soede, global head of e-commerce at BNP Paribas talks to Frances Maguire about the launch of BNP Paribas advanced multi-product FX trading platform. Employing cutting edge trading technology, CORTEXFX offers efficient execution and a one-stop point of access to a range of intelligent electronic products, tools and services from BNP Paribas. ...show more

Streamlining and simplification of FX trading operations with more unified post trade architectures

Features

Mandatory clearing of NDFs via CCPs is expected to be implemented this year and with clearing of FX Options to follow, Frances Maguire looks at whether the changes to the back office will bring more joined-up processing for FX....show more

ProTrader2 - bringing a fresh perspective to the fast evolving FX market

Sponsored Statement

Lars Holst, CEO of CFH Markets, talks about how the FX market is evolving and in what ways the new ProTrader 2 platform has been designed to improve the overall trading experience for the company’s clients....show more

Why controlling your entire margin trading chain should be a top priority

Sponsored Statement

...show more

Visualisation – achieving real-time perspectives of the FX liquidity landscape

Features

A new generation of liquidity aggregation technologies and liquidity management toolsets can now assist high performance FX sell-side and buy-side firms to visualise liquidity and therefore accelerate deployment of alpha generating algorithms and optimise the implementation of their trading strategies. Nicholas Pratt explores what factors and FX business drivers are creating demand for improved real-time views of FX liquidity. ...show more

ActForex: Treading the path to business success in FX

Technology Provider Profile

The independent trading platform provider, ActForex, started business in 1998, which was before e-Forex was launched. As the company now has traders in over 100 countries using its products, we asked CEO Ilya Sorokin to tell us more about the secret of their success....show more

Africa

Regional eFX Perspective

Richard Willsher discovers how trade and telecommunications infrastructure shape the current foreign exchange market in Africa as a whole and although South Africa is the continent’s leading electronic trading market, he outlines why we can expect to see growth in e-FX taking place in many other countries within the continent over the next few years....show more

Committed to maintaining a balanced ecology for all traders

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Jeff Ward, Global Head of FX Sales at ICAP Electronic Broking....show more

Strength, experience & innovation – pivotal issues when choosing a strategic partner for FX Prime Brokerage services

FOCUS

While FX prime brokerage is already a growth area, the added complexity of mandatory clearing for NDFs and FX options is likely to give the segment another boost as those drawn into clearing consider the benefits of a prime broker. Frances Maguire looks at what is in store....show more

Hotspot FX Private Label

Product Launch

e-Forex talks with John Miesner, Managing Director and Head of Sales at Hotspot FX, about the launch of Hotspot FX Private Label....show more

CEP - A disruptive technology changing the face of FX

Forex Technology

Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology is continuing to expand further out across and beyond capital markets and banking sectors - including at FX retail and institutional levels. Top use cases from just a few years ago - headed by algo trading - have been leapfrogged lately by auto hedging and risk, market surveillance and FX e-commerce. Roger Aitken examines the landscape. ...show more

Utilizing cloud computing architectures for improved control over risk and FX back-office operations

Forex Technology

With cloud computing services continuing to have a dramatic impact on the delivery of FX trading applications, Joe Morgan looks at where we can expect to see further significant use of the technology being applied to post trade and FX risk management operations....show more

Improving FX Market Data delivery with Managed Network connectivity services

Forex Technology

Joe Morgan discovers more about how managed network connectivity solutions can significantly improve the delivery of FX market data between FX trading venues, counterparties and data centers and what tools and applications are now available via managed network providers to help High Frequency FX trading firms analyse their pricing, trading and post-trade data processing activities....show more

Unified Messaging: helping to extend FX trading platforms beyond the enterprise

Forex Technology

Joe Morgan examines how a new generation of middleware messaging architectures can now be leveraged to help platform developers overcome many of the difficulties in moving real-time FX data across multiple delivery channels....show more

Banks and brokerages to benefit from Gold-i enhancements

Sponsored Statement

Latest developments from Gold-i, a global market leader in trading systems integration, ensure that its flagship product, the Gold-i Gate Bridge, remains at the forefront of the trading technology industry. Tom Higgins, Gold-i’s CEO explains the key features and benefits of Gold-i’s latest upgrade, Version 258....show more

FX Mythbusters: Defending the value proposition of Single-Dealer Platforms

FX Mythbusters

Patrick Myles, Chief Technology Officer at Caplin Systems answers some questions on the subject of Single Dealer Platforms....show more

Boston Prime: bringing innovation to liquidity connectivity

In the chair

e-Forex talks with David Hastings, CEO of Boston Prime, an innovative liquidity connector which provides institutional-grade liquidity for FX market participants....show more

CoreVG - helping to amplify market making profits.

Retail e-FX Provider

Varengold, the German investment bank, has recently launched an enhanced flow and risk management tool - CoreVG for brokers that enables them to amplify and leverage their market making profits. The company’s CEO Yasin Sebastian Qureshi, tells e-Forex more about this product and the growth of the firms institutional offerings....show more

White Labelling taking the fast track to capturing new business opportunities in FX

Retail e-FX Provider

Heather McLean examines what factors should influence a financial institution or brokers choice of FX White Label (WL) solution and strategic licensing partner to work with and in what ways WL partnerships can help trading firms to grow their market share and take advantage of fast evolving regional business growth opportunities in FX. ...show more

FASTTRACK

Fast Track

With Andrew Ralich, Co-Founder and CEO of oneZero Financial Systems, a leading provider of low latency software systems for the financial markets....show more

AxiTrader - a perfect partner to get your clients trading

Retail e-FX Provider

e-Forex talks with Matt McIntyre, Partners Manager at AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd, about the company’s institutional offering....show more

Retail FX ECNs - helping traders achieve more effective strategy implementation

Retail e-FX Client

Nicholas Pratt examines what benefits traders can get from dealing with brokers who take a hybrid approach to trade execution by offering both traditional Dealing Desk and and Non Dealing Desk facilities and he looks at what factors should determine whether a retail forex trader should transition to an ECN Broker and the issues that might influence their choice of platform provider....show more

MBTFX – offering more direct access to multiple liquidity providers

Product Launch

MB Trading recently launched MBTFX, a proprietary Electronic Xrossing Network (EXN) router. We asked CEO Ross Ditlove to tell us more about this product and the benefits of a more transparent FX pricing environment....show more

ThinkForex – matching high speed trade execution with dedicated client support.

Broker Study

e-Forex talks with Moses Virella, Marketing Director at ThinkForex, about the firms range of online trading services and plans for business development....show more

Social Investing - reshaping the face of Retail FX

Retail e-FX Client

At home in the spare room, all alone, day in, day out. That can be the lonely life of the retail trader. Or rather, that is what has been the lonely life of the retail trader until recently. As Heather McLean discovers, things are changing now with the rapid growth of social investment trading platforms, also known as copy and mirror trading networks, which are becoming ever more popular as they connect individuals from around the world in a hub of virtual social activity that relieves the feeling of isolation. ...show more

Harnessing the power of Harmonic Trading to improve your FX trading potential

Traders Workshop

My journey in harmonics came from a background of using Fibonacci Retracements and Extensions for the better part of two decades. It was a natural curiosity that led me to study “Fibonacci Patterns” since harmonic trading uses price patterns and Fibonacci ratios to project reversal levels (think support and resistance) in the markets....show more

Sticking to what works with currencies

Tradertalk

e-Forex talks with Philippe Bonnefoy, co-founder of Eleuthera Capital AG...show more

China – taking the first steps towards more open financial markets

Foreword

I want to talk about the efforts China has been making to set up rules and regulations for its Financial Industry but will first comment about the FX business continuing to dominate many headlines around the world....show more

HFT: Ban bad driving, not cars reducing the damage of disruptive high frequency trading to FX

Leader

In the race for speed, disruptive high frequency trading (HFT) behaviour and an arms race for the fastest market data threatens to cause more reputational damage to financial markets – but ban bad driving, not the cars argues Daniel Marcus....show more

Becoming mission critical the profound metamorphosis taking place with Post Trade FX services

Market Infrastructure

Caroline Henshaw investigates how long considered simple back-office functions and post-trade processes are playing an increasingly important role in shaping global currency markets as stricter regulations and tighter margins prompt companies to streamline their workflows....show more

Cutting through the noise - leveraging web content curation for FX trading applications

Social Media

Emmett Kilduff, CEO and founder of Eagle Alpha, explains the concept of content curation. He also outlines how companies specialised in monitoring and filtering digital information from a wide variety of social media, news sources, websites, forums and chat rooms across the web can provide deeper market insights and actionable data for high performance FX trading firms looking to build alpha generating strategies and trading models. ...show more

Single-Dealer Platforms offering high precision toolsets to give clients what they need

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

Banks have made major investments in single-dealer platforms in recent years but as the technology is commoditised, platforms need to add unique value in a fully customisable format if they are to gain market share. Joel Clark reports...show more

With Alain Broyon, CEO of Dukascopy Bank. Forex Hub, technology provider and media phenomena

e-Forex Interview

Dukascopy Bank may be a Swiss bank but its approach to its foreign exchange brokerage business is anything but conservative. The Geneva based company began life in 1998 as a software project launched by a physicist, Dr Andre Duka. This meant that technology was part of the firm’s DNA from the outset and, as we shall hear from its CEO Alain Broyon, it has remained at the cutting edge of new ideas and innovations....show more

Electronification and the future growth of FX Options

Special Report

Strides have been made in electronic trading for FX options recently and as Frances Faulds discovers there are still more to come....show more

From conflict to collaboration - how client relationships are changing across the e-FX trading environment

Debate

With Ty Danco, CEO of Buyside FX, Alan F. Schwarz, CEO of FXSpotStream, David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies and Justyn Trenner, Global of Head of Liquidity Optimization at EBS....show more

From TCA to Execution Algorithms - FXone Seabury increases its product spread

Provider Profile

With Rosario M. Ingargiola, President and Chief Executive Officer of FXone Seabury Financial Solutions (SFS)....show more

Which, When and Why taking a more informed approach to algorithmic FX trading

Algorithmic FX Trading

William Essex sets out to explore why choosing the most appropriate FX algorithm for their own specific needs can sometimes be a complex undertaking for many buyside firms who may be new to the benefits and applications of using algorithms....show more

Advanced Markets - a true innovator of wholesale liquidity, technology and credit solutions for the FX brokers

Provider Profile

e-Forex speaks with Anthony Brocco, Executive Chairman of Advanced Markets Ltd., a company that now serves more than 40,000 clients across 30 countries globally....show more

Filling the banking gap with a new wave of FX prime broker and credit intermediary

FX Brokerage Operations

Nicholas Pratt examines how a new breed of FX credit intermediaries and prime of prime brokers are able to fill the void left by banks who are responding to the impact of the tightened credit environment by reconsidering their engagement with hedge funds, prop trading firms and retail aggregators, making it harder for these firms to access interbank markets...show more

Smooth Operations: Outsourcing IT can help brokers to run MT4 more efficiently

Sponsored Statement

Managing a MetaTrader environment is highly complex. It involves specialist knowledge to ensure that systems run smoothly at all times, even when you’ve left the office. From system updates and monitoring trade activity to ensuring there is sufficient memory, storage and bandwidth, it can also be very time consuming. ...show more

Brokerage technology: acquiring the right systems for moving up the retail e-FX value chain

FX Brokerage Operations

With retail investors being one of the fastest growing groups of FX traders, brokers are rapidly having to expand their range of products and services to keep pace. Yet, as Heather McLean reports, many issues need to be addressed in order to ensure that they acquire the right technology platforms for their businesses which will enable them to grow and eventually move up the retail e-FX value chain....show more

Selecting an additional platform to MT4

Sponsored Statement

According to recent research, around two thirds of brokers using MetaTrader4 either currently have a second platform or are considering using an alternative trading platform this year....show more

The race to zero and beyond: harnessing the benefits of Microwave technology for high speed precision in FX trading

Technology

e-Forex talks to Dr Jock Percy, CEO of Perseus Telecom and Jay Lawrence, CEO of NexxCom Wireless about the application of Microwave communications technology in the FX trading environment....show more

CFH Clearing: A Prime Broker on the rise

Sponsored Statement

With its strong heritage, tailor-made liquidity, innovative technology and growing global client base, CFH Clearing is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading Prime of Prime solutions providers. Lars Holst, CEO of CFH Clearing, talks to e-Forex about market developments, the company’s growth and future plans. ...show more

FX traders see sunshine through the Cloud

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Dan Barnes discovers how high availability, improved tolerance and increased scalability are leading FX traders to place more confidence in the Cloud....show more

Managing a team of committed professionals

In the chair

With Abdelrahman Alimari, Managing Director of CommexFX, a fully regulated award-winning STP/ECN Forex Broker ...show more

New models and methodologies: taking your automated FX trading to the next level

Automated FX Trading

Popularity of automated trading systems has been constantly growing throughout the years. On the one hand, the reason of such popularity is that an automated trading system allows a trader to generate more trades (a robot allows to analyze more trading instruments and timeframes simultaneously) and excludes the psychological factor when making decisions. On the other hand, automated trading is popularized by brokerage companies and developers of trading platforms and trading systems....show more

TradingFloor.com exploring the untapped potential of social trading

Sponsored Statement

With Rune Bech, chief digital and communications officer at Saxo Bank...show more

Trader Diary - A tale of winners and losers

Retail FX trading

Samuel J. Rae gives us an overview of the ups and downs he has experienced with his trading strategies over the last three months and the steps he takes to maintain a positive risk reward ratio....show more

RTFX and RTFT. A successful partnership centred around investment expertise and innovative financial engineering

Tradertalk

In 2009, the business of the Swiss retail broker, Realtime Forex SA, was divided into an investment services licensed company, RTFX Ltd and its sister company RTFX Fund Management Ltd (both RTFX) and a technology services company, Realtime Financial Technologies SA (RTFT SA). e-Forex talks with Francesco Scotto, Senior Executive Officer at RTFX Fund Management Ltd, which is a specialised investment manager focused around FX, and Frederic Gay and Thierry Glauser, co-founders of RTFT SA, the trading technology provider to RTFX....show more

The last thing FX needs is the World Cup!

Currency Clips

Noureldeen Mufeed Kh. Al Hammoury Market Strategist at ADS Securities...show more

Asian currencies to weaken versus the USD in H2 2014

Currency Clips

John. J. Hardy Head of FX Strategy at Saxo Bank...show more

Common macro backdrop, different perspectives

Currency Clips

Bartosz Sawicki Head of Research at TMS Brokers...show more

Scandinavia in Focus

Currency Clips

Stan Klebaner Chief Business Development Officer at FinFx Trading Oy ...show more

Forget G10 – arise the EM10 EMFX London – May 20th 2014

Recent Events

May saw the 3rd instalment of the EMFX conference this year with a whole day dedicated to emerging markets, technology and people....show more

Has HMS EMFX left NYC? EMFX Conference New York City May 6th 2014

Recent Events

The Inaugural EMFX NYC conference was held in the Big Apple this May to bring together market professionals to discuss relevant issues surrounding both the local latam and emerging markets at large. ...show more

The search for good Mexican food Profit & Loss Conference Mexico April 2014 Mexico City

Recent Events

Someone once told me that if you want good Mexican food you need Mexicans. It’s not the same without them. With regulation front and center at PnL Mexico this year. Re-shaping market best practices, Mexico City (along with Toronto and San Paolo) are shaping up to be strategic cities for the America time zone. Its no surprise then that MXN is the 8th most traded currency pair....show more

AUD: Navigating the China slowdown

Currency Clips

When the Chinese economy roared out of the gates and onto the global stage, its major trading partners were the envy of the world. Australia, with approximately a quarter of its total exports going to China, was one of the lucky few. However, as the initial Chinese sprint slows to a trot, the close trading ties Australia boasts have turned from an advantage into the country’s Achilles heel. Among the industries hardest hit in this economic slump is the mining sector. Iron ore ...show more

Spotlight on the ECB

Currency Clips

We expected some market volatility with the ECB meeting in December. There were signifi cant expectations concerning how far President Mario Draghi will expand the QE programme. The infl ation target of 2% has been said to be the primary objective of the central bank and Draghi mentioned that he will do whatever it takes to boost Eurozone infl ation -and growth - in the near future. ...show more

The rise of the elephant

Recent Events

<strong>India Investor Summit - London Stock Exchange - January 2016<br></strong> In January this year, I was invited to attend the India Investor Summit, which focused on economic developments undertaken by the Indian government since its election in 2014. Whilst, commodities are at the centre of the fall in global markets, not all commodity-pegged countries are sharing the same experience, with India bucking the trend. ...show more

2016 EMEA Trading Conference

Recent Events

<strong>3rd March 2016 - Old Billingsgate, London</strong><br> The EMEA Trading Conference has become Europe’s largest one day trading event. Now in its eighth year, the conference is noted for its high quality speakers, relevant issues under debate and the significant networking opportunities it presents to the region’s trading community....show more

Will the Aussie Dollar head lower in 2016?

Currency Clips

Will the Aussie Dollar head lower in 2016?...show more

The ECB tries everything

Currency Clips

There is definitely something that cannot be hidden, the current European crisis is deeper than expected....show more

The Brazilian real: Every dog has its day

Currency Clips

Sometimes in the world of finance the simple approaches can work out the best. ...show more

Middle East investors head for the Yen

Currency Clips

From the middle of 2015 through the start of this year Middle East investors and traders have moved into the currency markets, in large numbers, to hedge their local equities investments primarily buying the Japanese yen....show more

FX Trading 2.0

e-FX Industry Report

Brad Bailey is a research director with Celent’s Securities and Investments practice...show more

A blockchain-based world: Is the vision too big?

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

When it comes to the Blockchain, keep taking the small steps, says William Essex. Then you can change everything...show more

360T Extending the value chain for all their clients

Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with Andrew Cromie, Global Head of Product Management for Institutional Investors, 360T Group, the award-winning multi-bank, multi-asset trading platform for OTC financial instruments....show more

Single Dealer Platforms: The quest to deliver a more impressive digital experience.

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

Multi-channel, multi-asset and multi-dealer: The Single Dealer Platform continues to evolve. To discover more, Frances Faulds talks to two leading FX providers to see how they are adapting their e-commerce offerings to the changing landscape in FX....show more

The Platform Provider Viewpoint

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

John Ashworth, CEO of Caplin Systems talks to Frances Faulds about the evolution, and the changing face of Single Dealer Platforms....show more

Performance analysis – new toolsets for improving the operational oversight of FX trading operations

Trading Operations

New solutions that can deliver more granular analysis of FX trading activities are increasingly in demand from both buyside and sell-side firms. Nicholas Pratt examines some of the critical components of these services....show more

London Capital Group – building success upon a new strategic focus

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Charles Henri-Sabet, CEO of London Capital Group (LCG)...show more

Australasia – an emerging powerhouse of digital FX innovation

Regional eFX Perspective

Richard Willsher reports on how a strong regulatory environment coupled with increasing demand for new, more efficient trading technologies, particularly from buyside firms is driving the development of e-FX across Australasia....show more

Saxo Markets

Meet the team

e-Forex speaks with Peter Plester, Head of FX Prime Brokerage at Saxo Markets, the Institutional Division of Saxo Bank Group....show more

Latency and FX – Why it still matters

Expert Opinion

In every industry, there is always a milestone moment when network latency decreases in importance and is replaced by other IT purchasing considerations – for example, network reliability, overall cost, risk management or security. ...show more

Financial Cloud Services – utilising scalable solutions for FX trading applications

Special Report

Dan Barnes investigates why Cloud computing is challenging the status quo in FX and how a diverse range of ecosystems are now available to cater for banks, FX brokers, asset managers and high performance trading firms. ...show more

Global growth at CFH Clearing: With clear benefits for banks & brokers worldwide

Sponsored Statement

With recent record sales, new team members and new office locations, CFH Clearing continues to experience significant growth. According to Global Head of Sales, Paul Jackson, “Business is strong because we have a compelling offering – in terms of technology and liquidity – for clients across the globe. Organisations who have found it difficult to secure a Prime Broker are seeing the benefits of working with us to access institutional liquidity and this has contributed to major growth for CFH Clearing and CFH Systems over the last year.”...show more

Seizing the opportunities of new disruptive technologies in FX

Technology

Dan Barnes explores the nature of some of the so called “disruptive technologies” and where competitive advantages may lie for FX firms who are first to seize the opportunities that these can deliver....show more

Liquidity, platforms and technology – greasing the wheels for more efficient CFD trading

FX Brokerage Operations

Increasing numbers of institutional firms and FX brokers are looking to trade and expand their product range with contracts for difference (CFDs), as they are now a mainstream product with genuine appeal. Yet, as Heather McLean discovers, CFDs pose interesting challenges that need to be addressed....show more

Gold-i Matrix 2.0 Make more money and reduce risk

Product Launch

Gold-i’s CEO, Tom Higgins describes Matrix 2.0 as the most significant Gold-i product since the inception of the company. With an investment of almost £1million to bring Gold-i’s new liquidity management tool to market, Tom explains why Matrix 2.0 is such a game changer for the world leader in trading systems integration and how it will help brokers and banks worldwide to make more money and reduce risk....show more

DDoS attacks in FX – taking steps to protect your bandwidth and IT resources

Security

Last year’s wave of DDoS attacks on financial institutions that targeted forex brokers and banks in particular, renewed worries over cyber security and whence the next attack will come. These attacks were particularly worrisome for the foreign exchange industry. As of last year, everyone has been on guard — especially trading infrastructure companies, software platform providers, forex brokers and traders who count on reliability and security to conduct their business....show more

A never ending pursuit for Best Execution

Voice from the buyside

Russell Investments is one of the oldest and most well-known buy-side firms in the world. Established in 1936, the firm has some $266 billion in assets under management. That creates massive currency trading needs. e-Forex speaks with the man in charge of handling those needs in the EMEA region, Klaus Paesler. He’s ready to use any method at his disposal to provide bespoke services for clients, whether that involves voice, netting and matching or algo-based trading....show more

AFME’s 11th Annual European Fixed Income and FX Market Liquidity Conference

Recent Events

<strong>Thursday 25 February 2016 St. Paul’s, London</strong><br> In a hospital pass during the panel about China I was asked what I thought about BREXIT? (At time of writing the decision had not come through) I said that as a New Zealander I was perhaps not qualified to answer that question on behalf of the British people but seeing as Immigration had, at the time become one of the main issues then perhaps I was fully qualified to answer that question....show more

India’s Economy – The road ahead

Recent Events

<strong>Advisory Council for India - City of London – May 2016</strong><br> In the midst of Brexit, the City of London Advisory Council and the High Commission of India invited me to a panel discussion providing an update on the economic reforms taking place in India. Since the start of 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promoted the phrase ‘reform to transform India’, further committing to his government’s plans for rapid economic growth....show more

Vulnerability of Asian currencies in the next half

Currency Clips

For the second half of 2016, Asian currencies continue to be vulnerable owing to weakness in economies and uncertainty on US rate hikes prospect. We look at some of the issues on 4 of the biggest economies in Asia. ...show more

A roller coaster ride with the Aussie Dollar

Currency Clips

The Aussie Dollar has had a roller coaster start and after a massive selloff, we have reached a low after touching the 0.685 mark. Investors are facing the question as to whether this is a line in the sand or not but the only way to answer this is to look at the policy stance by the Royal Bank of Australia....show more

The CHF set to strengthen on Brexit fears

Currency Clips

Unlike many other financial market events, the EU referendum not only has potentially extreme consequences but is also purely binary. Opinion polls are showing a dead heat between the “leave” and “stay” votes, with numbers well within the margin of error. This could mean the UK is in the EU on June 23 and planning an exit strategy on June 24. For financial markets, Brexit would have significantly greater consequences than a “remain” vote, so that is what we are focusing on – not because we like chaos but because that is where the greatest risk lies....show more

More to come from the Yen

Currency Clips

As the Brexit referendum looms, the focus is on GBP pairs both before and after the vote results. Here in the Middle East, investors will be the first to trade the currency market immediately after the referendum purely due to the time difference. At the moment Middle East investors overwhelmingly believe that the UK will remain in the EU. As a result, these same investors will likely turn to GBPJPY due to its fast movements, and this is good for ‘hit and run’ traders. Despite the notable rise across the board that began in December of last year and has continued until today, it appears that there is still more to come from the yen in the next few weeks. USDJPY has lost more than 14.5% since mid-December of last year, despite the introduction of negative rates by the Bank of Japan and the Government delaying a sales tax increase until 2019. ...show more

Gravity and the Brazilian real

Currency Clips

The performance of emerging market currencies can often be split between domestic factors and overall sentiment towards EM in general. One of the major forces driving overall sentiment over recent years has been expectations of higher interest rates from the US Federal Reserve. There are two primary reasons for this. The first is the fear of and/or actual reversal of flows that were driven by the Fed’s easy monetary policy of recent years. Second is the pressure from EM dollar denominated debt, increasing the funding pressure on EM governments and corporates. But it’s not been the be all and end all of the past 3 years, which have seen EM FX as an asset class lose around one-third of its value....show more

The evolving Blockchain and what it might mean for FX

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

There’s more to distributed ledgers than just distribution and book-keeping, as William Essex discovers....show more

FX Clearing House: How Blockchain could triple Spot-FX liquidity

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

The creation of a digital distributed ledger Clearing House promises to increase participation in Spot FX markets, breaking a choke on the current access to liquidity. When non-bank electronic market makers entered the FX space they found a set of rules and agreements from the 20th century. The sell-side dominance of liquidity provision, based on the size of their balance sheets, gives them an untenable grip on who can trade with who. Now Baxter-FX has designed a model that will allow all-to-all trading in Spot-FX, by creating central clearing with a distributed ledger called “FXCH” (FX Clearing House). e-Forex talks to Franck Mikulecz, Managing Director of the firm to learn more about it....show more

Regulatory compliance in FX - transforming a burden into a value-added function

Regulations & Compliance

James Phillips, Lombard Risk Global Head of Regulatory Strategy, reviews the impact of changing regulation in FX trading....show more

MFX Compass: Levelling the e-FX playing field

Provider Profile

In an increasingly volatile market, it has never been more important for FX market makers to have a robust, agile and profitable e-FX risk management offering....show more

Principles, Actions, Results: Achieving a more robust process of Best Execution in FX

Order Management

While the concept of best execution was born in the equities market, regulators are now setting their sights on bringing the FX market up to similar levels on competence, despite the greater fragmentation of trading venues that exists in the FX market. Frances Faulds reports....show more

MFX Vector: Empowering the buy-side with state of the art technology

Platform Profile

Investors today are confronted by a bewildering array of execution tools. While all undoubtedly have their place, the challenge lies in knowing what to use and when.Equally important is the justification of those execution decisions after the fact; to internal stakeholders, regulators and clients....show more

A company working to transform the future of FX trading

Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with Peter Jörgne CEO and Henrik Dubajic, Global Head of Sales at Aphelion, the award winning technology company whose team of software architects and partners have been working in the e-FX market since 1996....show more

Best Execution in FX - do Algos have a role to play?

Algorithmic FX Trading

The use of execution algorithms in the currency markets has increased significantly over recent years and it would appear that this trend is set to continue for the foreseeable future. In this article Pete Eggleston, Co-Founder of BestX Ltd explores the potential benefits and pitfalls of using algorithms within an execution process....show more

GTX: The Electronic-Voice Hybrid that delivers a full service offering

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Vincent Sangiovanni, CEO of GTX, the institutional arm of GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc....show more

The Middle East - scope for growth in electronic FX

Regional eFX Perspective

There is still plenty of scope for growth in e-FX trading across The Middle East region and Richard Willsher reports on how leading providers are meeting the need for the benefits it brings....show more

National Bank of Abu Dhabi - gearing up to be a market leader in electronic distribution across the MENA region

Regional Provider Profile

e-Forex speaks with David Wilkins, Head of Global Markets e-commerce at National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). ...show more

Sharpening the tools of the trade: New developments with FX Strategy back testing platforms

Trading Operations

Back testing foreign exchange trading strategies has always been more difficult than it has been for equities, futures and options not only because of the difficulty in obtaining appropriate historical market data from the FX market but because of the sheer scale of the amount of data that needs to be processed. Nicholas Hastings investigates....show more

How to transform your business into a fully automated trading company

Expert Opinion

The traditional approach to quantitative trading involves using tools like Excel, MatLab and Bloomberg to perform development and back-testing, while using proprietary software code for live trading of strategies. But this model is highly inefficient and difficult to maintain – for example, when making changes to trading logic....show more

CMC Markets

Meet the team

e-Forex speaks with Richard Elston, Head of Institutional at UK-based CMC Markets (CMC), one of the leading international providers of CFD and FX trading....show more

IPC’s new FX Hub benefits customers

Product Launch

IPC recently launched its FX Hub, a low latency, co-located performance solution engineered to address the industry’s most complex trading challenges....show more

ADS Securities LLC launches Prime-of-Prime offering

Product Launch

Tighter regulation, reduced risk appetite and the decline in the number of Prime Brokers (PBs) are affecting growth in the global FX market, according to ADS Securities. An estimated 25 per cent drop in available FX trading lines is leading to wider spreads, higher prices and increased foreign currency exposure for many participants. ...show more

Are spreads the key criteria when selecting a Liquidity Provider?

FX Mythbusters

According to Paul Groves, Sales Director at CFH Clearing, retail brokers can often be unaware as to how best to select a Liquidity Provider. They focus on spreads as their key driver without always considering other priorities such as depth of market, quantity available at the Top of Book (TOB), commission, service levels, speed of execution, order handling and rejections. In our Mythbusters feature about liquidity, he identifies the top misconceptions he believes are most commonly experienced by brokers worldwide....show more

Strategies’ backtesting is what differentiates amateurs from professional traders

Sponsored Statement

Each trader requires three crucial factors in order to succeed on the Forex market....show more

FX Prime Brokerage - an industry transforming itself

Special Report

The FX prime brokerage industry has transformed in recent years with new prime of primes (PoPs) emerging to fill the gap created by the retreat of tier one prime brokers’. Nicholas Pratt reports on the latest developments....show more

Resilience, Redundancy, Flexibility and Capacity: Can the Managed Service model meet the future needs of FX?

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Dan Barnes explores some of the operational and cost benefits of the Managed Service model for both sell-side and buy-side FX trading firms and how it can specifically help them with their trade lifecycle operations....show more

MT5 on the rise

Ask Tom

Tom Higgins, CEO, Gold-i has created a multi award-winning technology company renowned amongst retail brokers worldwide for its MT4 expertise. With a wide portfolio of innovative software products which help brokers using MetaTrader to more make more money, cut costs and reduce risk, Gold-i has helped over 150 brokers across the globe to enhance their operations and differentiate from competitors. In the next in our series of Ask Tom articles, Tom gives his views on the anticipated surge in MT5 and highlights the latest technology which will result in significant uptake of MT5 amongst retail brokers across the globe....show more

Broker In A Box: Hype or a faster way to bring your business to market?

FX Brokerage Operations

Is a Broker In A Box solution the ideal way to establish and grow a successful FX and CFD brokerage? Simon Blackledge, Director, itexsys, guides us through the opportunities and obstacles created by opting for a ‘one stop shop’ set up....show more

The art of being in the Vanguard

Voice from the buyside

Asset management companies don’t get much bigger than Vanguard. The group, which recently turned 40, offers more than 345 funds around the world, with approximately $3.5 trillion in assets under management as of end of March 2016. That kind of size involves dealing with massive foreign exchange exposures, a task so big that Vanguard created a global team to handle FX trading. The head of those operations is Andrew Maack, who spent some time with our reporter Adam Cox to talk about how algorithmic trading helps him do his job and how such a large fund group like Vanguard goes about generating the smallest footprint possible....show more

What’s driving growth in trading of Asian currencies?

Currency Clips

The recent past has shown a growing interest among currency traders to trade in Asian currencies, with the currency contracts listed on exchanges in Dubai and Singapore witnessing a growth or 30% or more in the year 2015. ...show more

The Aussie Dollar - where to go from here?

Currency Clips

A weaker currency is mostly considered as the key by most central banks if they want to stimulate growth. Monetary policy is the common approach that they use to devalue the currency. The currency warmed to a level of 0.6859 at the start of this year when the Fed were immensely bullish with respect to their interest rate hike. Nevertheless, it then regained its losses by touching the high of 0.7810 in late April for this year which was nearly over 14.75%; a signifi cant move when it comes to currency trading. Since then, we have given up some of these gains, but it is still up nearly 11.07% since the start of this year....show more

German economy suffers and ECB is still on the dovish side

Currency Clips

Over the past weeks, German data has provided quite a disappointment after July factory orders came in below expectations at 0.2% m/m vs. 0.5% m/m. In addition, July industrial production was also very weak. Consensus bet on a quasi-fl at print at 0.1% m/m but the fi gure was released in negative territory at -1.5% m/m. Germany’s economic data is very troubling, especially when we consider that the country is the main driver of the Eurozone....show more

Pound weakness can unwind in Q4

Currency Clips

The British pound was the worst performer since the beginning of this year compared to G10 currencies. This drop intensifi ed after the U.K electorate voted in favour of a referendum to leave the EU. Meanwhile, Sterling fell by more than 13% against the U.S Dollar before finding a temporary low around 1.2798 level....show more

The Brazilian real stands out

Currency Clips

In theory at least, the carry trade should not exist. But theory and practise often diverge and even more so in the FX markets. Carry is what you make from the interest rate differential between two currencies. Currencies are money and money bears interest, so if you borrow (go short) in a lowyielding currency and invest (go long) in a high yielding currency, you will receive positive carry (or interest)....show more

The Blockchain Ecosystem - Who can you trust?

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are back in fashion with blockchain designers. But future prosperity really depends on bankers getting past their trust issues, says William Essex....show more

The Bitcoin Rock

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Newly listed on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) is BitcoinETI, an asset-backed Exchange Traded Instrument that is “invested exclusively in Bitcoin, making it the first European regulated product for the leading digital currency,” as the paperwork puts it. Nick Cowan, Managing Director of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), and Paul Astengo, Senior Executive at The Gibraltar Finance Centre, spoke to William Essex about Bitcoin, Europe and Gibraltar’s role as an “innovative financial jurisdiction”....show more

The question of MiFID II post Brexit - A UK perspective

Regulations & Compliance

James Phillips, Lombard Risk Global Head of Regulatory Strategy discusses the impact of Brexit on the application of MiFID reforms to UK based trading fi rms....show more

A new market model - FX Futures and Clearing to be unavoidable in 2017

Expert Opinion

We are now nearly seven years into the three-year market reformation project kicked off by the G20 in Pittsburgh 2009, but we are still some way from our end-state....show more

Liquidity provision and the changing face of currency relationships

Liquidity Management

As banks withdraw from market-making, a growing number of non-banks are stepping in to fi ll the void as Nicholas Pratt discovers....show more

The future of Electronic FX Options trading: Putting the building blocks in place

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

John Crisp, Director of Product Strategy at FENICS explores how the electronic trading of FX options has evolved and what factors are likely to encourage greater usage of automation for these relatively complex instruments....show more

smartTrade Technologies - A pioneer in the creation of disruptive cross - asset class electronic trading technologies

Technology Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with David Vincent, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of smartTrade Technologies....show more

Acting on a micro level: How FX algorithms are meeting the need for increasing control over FX order execution

Algorithmic FX Trading

FX algo take-up is going strong as adopters get comfortable taking on market risk, resulting in a shake-up of the traditional order. Anna Reitman reports....show more

oneZero - The award-winning software provider that is helping to bridge the FX technology gap

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Andrew Ralich, co-founder and CEO of oneZero Financial Systems (oneZero), a leading developer of institutional software solutions for the foreign exchange, commodities, and futures markets....show more

Regional e-FX perspective on sub-Saharan Africa

Regional eFX Perspective

Although dazzled by its own diversity, hampered by economics, politics, poverty and lack of infrastructure, sub-Saharan Africa is a continent full of e-FX possibilities as Richard Willsher discovers....show more

Retail FX in Africa

Regional eFX Perspective

Retail customers tend have two reasons to engage with foreign exchange. One is through remittances. The other is through speculative trading....show more

ForexTime (FXTM) - the global broker with a local touch

Regional Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist for the Gulf and Middle East, at FXTM....show more

Currency trading on exchanges - the value proposition strengthens

FX on Exchanges

With reports that the global FX market is slowly shrinking, Frances Faulds looks at how currency trading on the world’s exchanges is faring up and looking to grow....show more

360T echoes shift to exchanges

FX on Exchanges

360 Trading Networks, acquired by Deutsche Börse Group last year, has been working closely for some months with Eurex Exchange to improve and expand its listed FX derivatives products....show more

Broadway Technology - a FinTech company with innovation running through its DNA

Meet the team

e-Forex speaks with Tyler Moeller and Joshua Walsky, Co-founders of Broadway Technology....show more

Coping with Brexit - How electronic platforms held up during the world’s messiest divorce

Special Report

Nicholas Hastings investigates how platforms and trading venues coped with volumes and market volatility during the recent UK referendum event....show more

Intelligent Services via Intelligent Networks - Moving FX trading, collaboration and communication to a higher level

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Dan Barnes explores why getting a network provider who can offer intelligent services may create better opportunities, fewer risks and more efficient trading....show more

CFH: A responsible approach to Risk Management

Sponsored Statement

Paul Jackson, Global Head of Sales, CFH Clearing answers our questions about recent changes in brokers’ attitudes, particularly towards risk management. He explains how CFH has responded to market changes in order to provide institutional clients worldwide with an unparalleled end-to-end trading solution and award winning liquidity....show more

The Coronation of MetaTrader 5: Will it be crowned the FX Platform of choice?

FX Brokerage Operations

MetaQuotes fifth generation trading platform, MetaTrader 5 (MT5), launched in 2011. Despite muted initial adoption, the platform is finally catching the interest of the forex market and interest is growing at a rapid pace. Nicola Tavendale investigate...show more

Why are Business Intelligence tools so key for brokers?

Ask Tom

Tom Higgins, CEO, Gold-i has created a multi award-winning Fintech company, renowned amongst retail brokers worldwide for its market-leading software which helps brokers using MetaTrader to make more money, cut costs, reduce risk and differentiate from competitors. In the next in our series of Ask Tom articles, Tom answers questions about business intelligence tools. With only 20% of MT4 brokers currently using such tools, he believes the majority of brokers are missing a trick on simple ways to make more money. ...show more

More tailored and personalised - FX White Labelling completes a startling metamorphosis

FX Brokerage Operations

White labelled electronic foreign exchange products used to be all about speed to market. One simply had to pick a box, plug it in, and start trading. Now however, there has been something of a revolution in the white labelling market and as Heather McLean reports, it is no longer focused on a one size fits all approach, but on personalisation, customisation, and flexibility....show more

Triple A Rated - Adoption, Adherence, Advantages – assessing the practical implications of the FX Global Code

Viewpoint

With David Puth, Chief Executive Officer, CLS and Tod Van Name, Global Head of Foreign Exchange (FXGO) and Commodities (CMET) electronic trading at Bloomberg LP....show more

SIBOS

Recent Events

Latest developments in the FX Markets: The impact of current regulation and insights into future market evolution. 26th-29th September 2016...show more

Mondo Visone’s Exchange Forum

Recent Events

Recently R5FX took part in a great panel entitled “The Changing FX Marketplace” at Mondo Visone’s Exchange Forum in London. The main question asked was whether the FX market would move from being mainly OTC to being traded on exchange. This is in light of increased global regulation, calls for better transparency and the increasing cost of credit. London, 10th November 2016...show more

The London Summit

Recent Events

Organized as usual by the Finance Magnates team, the London Summit took place from 14th November to the 15th November 2016 at the Brewery in London, United Kingdom. ...show more

Italy says no, ECB still on the dovish side

Currency Clips

It was clear that against a backdrop of global crisis, Italy would defy its government and not allow it the chance to apply European austerity policies. Matteo Renzi has made a wise decision by announcing his dismissal as he does not represent what Italians want. ...show more

Where next for Sterling?

Currency Clips

It has been a torrid few months for the pound, with the outcome of the Brexit referendum providing the fi rst of a series of notable legs down for the pair. Cable for example may be trading a few cents above those 31 year lows of 1.20 which were touched in the wake of the “flash crash” at the start of October, but does sterling deserve to be looking so depressed as 2016 comes to a close?...show more

Testing China

Currency Clips

Beyond US shores, nowhere has Trump’s election as the next US President been more acutely felt as it has in Asia and on Asian currencies in particular. ...show more

Growth Prospects Improving for Aussie in 2017

Currency Clips

It is the optimism about the growth in year 2017, which has shrugged off the losses for the Aussie after its brutal GDP number. If you look at the county’s GDP, it has not contracted since March 2011. Thus, there was no surprise that we have seen such a reaction by traders when the GDP number was released. ...show more

5,000 foot view of Multi-Asset EMS FX functionalities

e-FX Industry Report

The global foreign exchange (FX) industry has gone through quite a transformation over the last 40 years, both from a market infrastructure/market dynamics perspective and as a result of rapid technological advancement in communication mediums and trading venues....show more

FX clearing: the last hurdle?

Market Commentary

Two CCPs race to offer an FX options clearing solution first and as Frances Faulds reports, CLS may offer a settlement service to other CCPs....show more

Keeping up with the blockchain

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Everybody’s talking about it and you should be listening, says William Essex...show more

The slow algo movement

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Happy third birthday to NXT, the relatively enduring “decentralised financial platform” (the word “blockchain” fits in there somewhere), which cut the cake in November 2016. Nxt was “coded entirely from scratch”, and has handled around 2.3 million transactions to date. Nxt’s Dave Pearce spoke to William Essex about Nxt and the future of FX....show more

Compliant FX trading requires automated regulatory technology

Reg Tech

Global markets for FX derivative trading have developed under lightly regulated conditions. In the wake of the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh consensus on derivatives regulation, FX markets have become subject to significant regulatory oversight in areas such as price transparency, order execution, transaction reporting, central clearing and collateral management. ...show more

Portware - A company of supreme problem solvers that focuses on enhancing the client experience

Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with Alfred Eskandar, Chief Executive Officer, Portware, a FactSet Company, the award winning provider of solutions that transform the way financial institutions analyze, communicate, and execute investment ideas....show more

Taking a more systematic approach to FX algo selection

Algorithmic FX Trading

As firms increasingly access electronic execution for FX, the right decisions for deploying and selecting algorithms are, as Anna Reitman discovers, a combination of getting knowledgeable about market technologies and tapping into the lessons of traditional wisdom. ...show more

The importance of maintaining a time-series database of quotes, orders and trade executions

Expert Opinion

There has been significant growth in the use of algos for executing forex orders. There has also been a proliferation of execution venues (banks, ECNs, non-bank trading). As such, forex traders face a bewildering set of choices of where and how to execute. Given the dynamic nature of the forex market, any choices need to be constantly re-evaluated and changed objectively. ...show more

Alpha - the boutique broker with a focus on partnerships

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Muhammad Rasoul, CEO of Alpha which specializes in providing customized execution, risk management, and liquidity to financial institutions operating in the retail OTC market. The company also provides bespoke execution services to professional clients. ...show more

Asian FX e-trading: beyond the tipping point

Regional eFX Perspective

As foreign exchange trading volumes swing further towards Asia, eFX takes centre stage, writes Richard Willsher...show more

RMB now sixth most used currency for global payments

Regional eFX Perspective

According to recent SWIFT data, the RMB was now in the top six of world payment currencies by value with a share of 1.67%....show more

Mobile trading and banking apps - leveraging the power of compelling new FX e-distribution channels

Technology

Heather McLean explores how mobile communication technologies can assist FX market participants ranging from banks to retail FX brokers to differentiate their offerings and achieve competitive advantages....show more

The art of app creation

Technology

SwipeStox was founded by what it describes as, “passionate entrepreneurs and finance geeks”. The business is focused on creating the most transparent social trading community platform worldwide, using collective wisdom by joining together communities of traders who swap tips, influence each other, copy trades and interact socially. The SwipeStox trading app runs on all devices. Users can trade on their laptop, from a terminal, or a mobile phone while on the go. Here, founder and CEO at SwipeStox, Benjamin Bilski, talks with e-Forex about the app....show more

APIs – the key to unlocking the real power of electronic FX

Technology

APIs, or application program interfaces, were not made for the foreign exchange market but it seems as if they should have been, reports Nicholas Hastings....show more

2017 - A big year for Stater Global Markets

Sponsored Statement

Ramy Soliman, CEO, Stater Global Markets has ambitious plans for the FCA regulated Prime of Prime brokerage in 2017. He explains to e-Forex how he is building on his experience in senior roles at Citi, IG and Integral to create a growing global business. ...show more

ThinkMarkets - A company built around service, integrity and trust

Meet the team

e-Forex speaks with senior executives at ThinkMarkets the award winning global brokerage headquartered in the UK and Australia....show more

Granularity, analytics, speed and delivery - competition heats up across the FX data space

Special Report

The rapid growth in electronic trading venues for FX, technology advancements and greater regulatory demands and scrutiny are greatly impacting how FX firms source, manage and use market data. Frances Faulds investigates....show more

Meeting regulations & compliance - the growing burden of Trade Reporting

Special Report

Trade reporting obligations for all derivatives products began six years ago in the US, under Dodd-Frank, and four years ago in the EU, when all entities active in the EU derivatives market, whether using derivatives for trading, hedging or investment purposes, were impacted by EMIR. ...show more

Data Management and the Cloud

Special Report

Storing and managing large amounts of market data from data centres has become very reliant on the cloud to enable low latency and streaming on-demand delivery for flexible computing power with a low footprint. ...show more

Big Data: Mining new data for FX

Special Report

Big data brings with it many opportunities for FX firms to personalise their FX services and enhance trade flows by tailoring pricing based upon customers’ historical trading behaviour as well as fine-tune algorithms, gain better intelligence and MIS to make better decisions and maximise pricing and trading. It is also unearthing new data sets for both trading and performance analysis....show more

Cost, availability, performance, security - stacking up the benefits of Managed Network and Hosting services in FX

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Dan Barnes sets out to discover more about how players across the FX trading spectrum can benefit from Managed Network and Managed Hosting services....show more

CFH positions itself to become number one B2B provider in the retail FX industry

Sponsored Statement

Having entered into an agreement to sell its business to Playtech for up-to 120m USD, CFH is being transformed into one of the biggest B2B organisations in the retail FX industry in terms of capital and balance sheet. Christian Frahm, Founder and CEO of CFH Group talks to e-Forex about the advantages of the acquisition for its institutional clients worldwide and CFH’s future plans....show more

Prime of Primes - Bridging the gap between the retail and institutional FX markets

FX Brokerage Operations

As Prime of Primes continue to fill the gap left by prime brokers withdrawal from parts of the FX market, Nicholas Pratt examines whether the PoP model can endure in the long-term and truly act as the bridge between the retail and institutional FX markets....show more

Gold-i launches MetaTrader 5 product portfolio

Sponsored Statement

2017 is the year that MetaTrader 5 will take off, according to Tom Higgins, CEO, Gold-i. As interest in the platform grows from brokers worldwide, Gold-i has made a significant investment in adapting its award-winning MT4 products for MT5. The Gold-i MT5 Gateway and MAM Pro for MT5 are already available, with other Gold-i products for MT5 such as a Coverage Plug-in, Risk DB and Visual Edge – Gold-i’s powerful risk management and business intelligence software – currently in development....show more

Mitigating threats – new tools and strategies for managing risk in retail FX brokerage

FX Brokerage Operations

Once viewed as only an institutional concern, the rising prominence of risk management in retail FX highlights the seismic changes taking place in the market as a whole. But how can brokers and technology providers tailor their solutions to the specific needs and unique demands of this sector? Nicola Tavendale writes. ...show more

International Beach Volley Ball wins

Recent Events

Ipanema is certainly the best place in the world to play Beach Volley Ball. That can’t be argued – but are Brazilians missing out by only really playing with each other?...show more

Pound’s outlook ahead of triggering the EU exit clause

Currency Clips

It has been a rough month for the Pound as the UK currency has been feeling the pressure from the implications of the Brexit decision; the prospects of a British economy outside the EU and the uncertainty surrounding the robustness of the domestic market in the years to come. ...show more

Outlook for the dollar: monetary policy vs trade policy

Currency Clips

So far this year, the monetary policy divergence theme has pushed the dollar higher, but can this theme continue? A lot depends on what if anything the Trump administration does about trade. ...show more

Japanese Yen Outlook Versus US Dollar

Currency Clips

Japan’s economy is seeing faster growth. Japanese Q4 GDP growth in 2016 was revised up to 1.2%, showing four straight quarters of growth, indicating the Japanese economy expanding at a faster pace. Improved export conditions, corporate profi ts and capex (which benefi ts from the weakening of the yen post the US presidential election) is the major factor that has contributed to economic growth. ...show more

The Euro - walking a tightrope

Currency Clips

No fi rework, no noise as expected from the ECB. The press conference was colourless as well however Draghi was a little less dovish. The initial move for the Euro was towards the downside as the decision gives a signal that Draghi is still dovish. The ECB still sees the QE running for its course. ...show more

Smart but not fast - how technology is democratizing FX

Market Commentary

As the activities of high frequency trading firms fall under increasing regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic, the preeminent importance of having the fastest trading kit is arguably receding among FX market participants reports Joe Morgan. ...show more

Back to Bitcoin?

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Blockchain builders and regulators need to face their greatest fear, suggests William Essex....show more

Bitcoin - take it seriously

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Jersey-based Global Advisors offer the listed Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI) and their Bitcoin Tracker One ETN, which you’ll find on Nasdaq. Take one look at GABI’s performance since inception in 2014, and you’ll want to know more. William Essex spoke to JeanMarie Mognetti, co-principal, head of trading & operations, Global Advisors....show more

Scaring the regulators?

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Is regulatory wariness really an obstacle to blockchain adoption? William Essex spoke to lawyer Arnaud Touati, associate member of the Paris Bar’s legalinnovation incubator....show more

An introduction to OTC Exchange Network

Provider Profile

OTC Exchange Network was established by electronic trading and e-FX technology expert Rosario M. Ingargiola, previously CEO of FXone, where he led the design and development of one of the most comprehensive institutional FX exchange technology stacks in the market, used by global Tier-1 clients. e-Forex talked to him about his latest venture....show more

Transaction Cost Analysis: Taking a new approach to measuring FX execution trading operations

Trading Operations

As FX market participants deal with the evolving market structure and prepare for the implementation of MiFID II, there is growing demand for more sophisticated trade analytics to improve decision-making in real-time. Joel Clark investigates....show more

Leaving it to the specialists: Overcoming liquidity constraints in FX

Liquidity Management

Access to liquidity has always been a primary concern for FX traders – from ensuring there are the necessary credit lines to the technology needed to locate and access the various venues. In recent years the dynamics behind liquidity provision have changed markedly and as Nicholas Pratt discovers, the competition has become more diverse....show more

IS Prime: Delivering a premier service to retail brokers

Sponsored Statement

IS Prime has experienced rapid growth since launching as an institutional Prime of Prime brokerage just over two years ago. The firm’s investment in its people and technology has resulted in an impressive global client base and a compelling offering for the market. e-Forex talks to IS Prime’s Managing Partner, Jonathan Brewer to find out more...show more

Harnessing the full power of algorithmic FX trading strategies

Algorithmic FX Trading

Anna Reitman looks at why trading firms and investors should look to deploy FX algorithms as a means to make their FX execution more efficient....show more

FXSpotStream: The zero-cost to taker utility operator

e-Forex Interview

FXSpotStream a subsidiary of LiquidityMatch, is the bank owned consortium operating as a market utility which was formed in 2011. e-Forex talks to their Co-founder & CEO Alan F. Schwarz, about the company’s continued rapid growth and product roadmap....show more

Regional e-FX perspective on Canada

Regional eFX Perspective

Richard Willsher reports that although Canada is set to see increased adoption of electronic FX channels, voice trading continues to account for a surprisingly large proportion of turnover in the regional FX market....show more

FX on Exchanges - product offerings build momentum

FX on Exchanges

With the uncleared margining rules coming into force, the global derivatives exchanges are stepping up to the mark with new FX derivatives products to entice the FX market. Frances Faulds looks at what’s in store from more customisable products to new currency derivatives....show more

Exchange penetration of FX Swaps Markets for 2017

Market Commentary

Exchanges are currently annually trading about $800b per year of ‘listed FX swaps’ compared to $2.3Trn which trade every day in the OTC FX Swaps markets. So this is a market the exchanges should attack. But why aren’t they penetrating as they probably should? And more importantly how will they accomplish this?...show more

The Future of FX

Expert Opinion

Will the FX market move on-exchange? A question often asked to panels at FX conferences, seemingly with the expectation of a binary answer. It’s a strange one though, as either a yes or no answer would have to ignore all of the individual drivers for the FX activity in question as well as the types of participants involved....show more

Solid FX - Building bridges between IT and the trading world

Provider Profile

Solid FX is a privately held IT development & consultancy firm, specialised in automated FX trading solutions and custom software development for the financial sector. The company was founded in 2010, by two experienced algorithmic traders, José and Diego Baptista, who had extensive knowledge of both the FX market and HFT technologies. e-Forex talks with their CEO José Baptista to learn more about this fast growing company....show more

Effectively addressing the Communications and Connectivity Challenges of Financial Market participants

Expert Opinion

Connectivity is critical for capital market participants – but that’s nothing new. The fi nancial markets industry has been talking about the importance of connectivity for data and voice communications for quite some time. What is new is that fi nancial fi rms worldwide are increasingly being encouraged to address their communications not only to meet upcoming regulations, such as MiFID II, but also to adopt new paradigms, and get closer to clients, so that they can source liquidity more easily. ...show more

Detect, Test, Screen and Audit: Models of defence for better Cybersecurity in FX

Special Report

Nicholas Hastings explores why the FX market with its massive daily turnover and multiplicity of traders, providers, platforms, brokers and lines of communications is particularly attractive to cyber attackers and what can be done to protect against them....show more

Top tips on gaining traction in Asia

Sponsored Statement

Since working for CFH Systems in Hong Kong, James Dewdney, Institutional Sales, has gained an insight into the opportunities for businesses in the industry wishing to grow in Asia. Here he shares some thoughts with e-Forex...show more

Gold-i A very smart disrupter helping MetaTrader brokers worldwide

Meet the team

UK-headquartered FinTech company, Gold-i is widely respected throughout the industry for enhancing the capabilities of MetaTrader brokers worldwide. With its growing portfolio of products for MT4 and MT5 brokers and ongoing focus on innovation, the company continues to lead the market as it expands into new territories. <br>In this feature, e-Forex talks to Gold-i’s Founder and CEO, Tom Higgins and members of his team about the company’s recent achievements, global expansion plans and future ambitions....show more

Partners of choice - Exceeding customer expectations in FX White Labelling

FX Brokerage Operations

The rise of new technologies, multiasset class trading and growing sophistication of the markets has led to fundamental changes to the traditional FX white label model. But how has it evolved to meet the needs of today’s markets and what does the future hold for this lucrative sector? Nicola Tavendale writes....show more

Rupee Internationalisation - by way of Brick Lane?

Recent Events

India’s central bank, the RBI, has long been wary of discussing or even admitting the existence of offshore Rupee transactions. Yet this year’s UK India Economic Financial Dialogue (EFD) made a significant breakthrough in that both countries supported the City of London and R5’s plans to create a Rupee Internationalisation Initiative in London....show more

The Pound’s outlook is in shambles after the UK General elections

Currency Clips

The UK General elections on June 8th was the most important risk event for the Pound since the Brexit referendum. Unfortunately for the Sterling, the elections resulted in a hung Parliament as the ruling Conservative party failed to command the majority needed and the Pound dropped almost 3% when Britain woke up to an uncertain political stage in the face of the Brexit negotiations. ...show more

US economy – A view on interest rates and the yield curve

Currency Clips

While interest rates (IR) have continued to climb on major fiscal policy reforms and a rising consumer price index (CPI), U.S Q1 2017 GDP growth rates reached their lowest level since 2014, albeit rising quarter-on-quarter when compared to Q4 2016, signalling that the US economy is slowing down. ...show more

Japanese Yen outlook versus US Dollar

Currency Clips

Safe havens had strengthened across the board as risk events over the past month have lifted markets’ risk off sentiment. Notably; the London terror attack, UK general election, Trump’s Russia leak scandal and the gulf states cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar. JPY has been one of the best performing currencies over the past month....show more

No immediate threats for the Euro

Currency Clips

Most of the risk, when it comes to the EUR/USD pair, is in the rear window. It is safe to say that the Euro currency does not face any mammoth immediate threat. Investors are anticipating a move from the European Central with respect to their monetary policy because of abating risk. However, the bank has used a very balanced approach so far.  It is also safe to say that inflation remains the biggest thorn for the ECB and the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi has his eyes riveted on it....show more

The Structure of the Flow FX Market is Stabilising

e-FX Industry Report

Over the past 18 months, GreySpark Partners has observed that the structure of the flow FX market – consisting of spot FX and vanilla OTC swaps, forwards and futures – has continued its incremental evolution....show more

RegTech in FX: Closing the gaps between regulatory intention and interpretation

Reg Tech

The month of September will mark the 9 year anniversary since the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh meeting which established the framework for new derivatives regulation, leading to a fountain of new rules being established across different regulatory jurisdictions for financial institutions to follow. ...show more

Is the blockchain getting real?

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Ask the crowd, says William Essex...show more

Blockchain in conference

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

A round up of significant recent and forthcoming blockchain events around the world...show more

The profitable psychology of altcoins

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Maksim Balashevich, founder and CEO of cryptocurrency data-feed provider Santiment, kicked off 2017 by blogging that, “following the recent rise in Bitcoin, we believe the altcoin market is set to experience a similar bull market over the course of the next 6 to 12 months as cryptocurrency investment enters the mainstream consciousness.” So far, so correct. William Essex met Maksim Balashevich to discuss future use cases, crypto-competitive innovators and the wisdom of crowds....show more

Chickens, eggs and streamlined systems

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Brothers Guy and Hugh Halford-Thompson founded BTL Group in 2015. The company has been listed on Canada’s TSX Venture exchange since November 2015 and runs its own proprietary blockchain platform. Interbit “is focused on helping enterprises streamline their existing IT infrastructure and therefore reduce risk and costs” (http://btl.co/interbit/). William Essex went to find out more....show more

OTC Exchange Network: Offering total trade-to-settlement solutions

Spotlight

OTC Exchange Network (OTCXN​) leverages its own proprietary blockchain technologies to operate a permissioned, peer-to-peer trading network solving the biggest problems facing all market participants; starting with the OTC Spot FX market. In this article we highlight its range of products and services....show more

Optimising FX liquidity Increasing profitability with less risk

Liquidity Management

The foreign exchange market is more fragmented than ever, and participants need to harness aggregation to access the liquidity they need. Joel Clark reports....show more

WHY WHAT and WHEN? Addressing the key questions about using FX algorithms

e-Forex Roundtable

With Mark Goodman, Global Head of Electronic Execution (FX, Rates, Credit, Futures) at UBS Investment Bank, Scott Wacker, Global Head of e-commerce Sales and Marketing at JP Morgan, David Mechner, CEO, Pragma Securities, Nickolas Congdon, Head of E-Trading Services at Commerzbank and Fergal Walsh, Managing Director, Global Head of FX Algorithmic Execution at Citi....show more

MahiFX - Where personalised partnerships are the key to success

Sponsored Statement

If events in the financial market over the last couple of years have taught us anything, it is that risk management is not something that should be taken lightly. In fact, it has become such a hot topic during recent months that it has been identified as one of the top focuses for businesses to improve in 2017, after numerous firms have fallen into administration. ...show more

Stater Global Markets: Offering institutional access to the FX Market

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with Ramy Soliman, CEO of London-based Prime of Prime Brokerage, Stater Global Markets about his firm’s extraordinary fast growth and future plans....show more

Citi Velocity ups the ante

Platform Profile

Launched almost a decade ago, Citi Velocity has continued to evolve rapidly since its signature v2.0 release in 2012, and has most recently been overhauled to provide a best-of-breed platform, built for and designed by traders in today’s regulatory environment. e-Forex talks to David O’Byrne, Director and FX Global Product Head of Citi Velocity, about the features that will future-proof Citi Velocity and ensure it is not only the fastest and slickest single-dealer platform, but also the safest....show more

Scandi squeeze

Regional eFX Perspective

The Nordic FX markets continue to adapt quickly to new e-trading trends. But local service providers are caught between competition from international banks and demands from their increasingly technology driven customers, writes Richard Willsher....show more

Artificial Intelligence in FX: Harnessing the future now

Special Report

There are a lot of questions and hype right now about the transformational benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and allied capabilities are about to bring to the capital markets. They probably will, but the truth is that these capabilities have been around for quite a while, and are now becoming more accessible as they become more affordable and people discover how to use them more effectively....show more

IS PRIME - Fast growth and an impressive client base

Sponsored Statement

e-Forex talks to Raj Sitlani and Jonathan Brewer, Managing Partners at IS Prime about how the firm has been building up market share....show more

Breaking through the Great Firewall of China: Delivering new FX trading services and connectivity solutions across Asia

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

There is an increasing demand for FX services across Asia but providing connectivity and trading services poses several challenges. Nicholas Pratt examines the various strategies employed by service providers to overcome the obstacles....show more

PrimeXM: Catering for the growing market in Asia

e-Forex Interview

PrimeXM is a leading technology provider to the global financial industry. The company was established in 2010 and its key business focus is providing cutting edge aggregation software, ultra-low-latency connectivity, institutional grade hosting solutions and high end MT4/MT5 Bridging and White Labels. e-Forex talks with Cristian Vlasceanu, CEO of PrimeXM about how it is building its business in Asia....show more

Security, Service, Heritage, Innovation. After 40 years IG still sticks to its core principles

Meet the team

IG has been at the forefront of innovation in trading for over 40 years and is now the world’s leading retail CFD provider, handling over 7 million transactions a month for over 152,000 active clients around the world. e-Forex talks with Mark Chesterman, Global Business Development Officer at the firm about its fast growing Institutional Services division....show more

Trading & Technology Clinic

Trading & Technology Clinic

In this the first of a new series of regular articles that we will be publishing in e-Forex, Alex Walker, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Transaction Network Services’ Financial Services Division, answers some of your questions on various hosting and network connectivity issues....show more

Exploring some of the key benefits of quantamental analysis

Models & Strategies

Alex Krishtop is a trading strategies architect and the founder of Edgesense Solutions, a boutique research and automated trading solutions provider. He can be reached at alex@edgesense.net...show more

Visual Edge: Increasing Profits in Brokerages Worldwide

Sponsored Statement

Visual Edge is one of Gold-i’s most innovative products for dealers and risk managers. It enables them to manage exposure risk, protect against toxic clients and view key trading metrics such as intra-day P&L and volumes. With customised dashboards, it provides high-level summary views as well as detailed drill down to individual symbols and clients. e-Forex talks to Misha Kipnis, VP, Gold-i Visual Edge, to find out more....show more

Social Trading technology opens up pathways towards smarter investing

Models & Strategies

Social trading now comes in many guises, but they arguably all developed from the same basic premise: facilitating traders with the ability to copy, or hedge against, successful trades or trading strategies. But how has the concept developed, why are there such marked differences in approach between providers and how is this sector likely to further evolve? Nicola Tavendale writes. ...show more

Trading and apps - a potted history

Memory Lane

What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, wallet and keys would have been top of the list of essentials when heading out of the house. These days (for most people) mobile phone is now at the top of that list. ...show more

The ECB is in a cat and mouse chase game

Currency Clips

We have less than four months left before the ECB asset purchase program ends, and the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi is still reticent about the future path of the monetary policy. Month after month, the tapering process has been delayed while the recovery in the Eurozone has strengthened. ...show more

Market appetite for U.S. Dollars is likely to experience wild swings

Currency Clips

For most of 2016 U.S. high yield bonds returned plenteous profits to investors and led to reaching the 3rd best performance over a period of 20 years.  While these markets were driving debt markets, mainly on an U.S. turn from an industrial recessional period and on low interest rates, the U.S. economy strengthened....show more

Pound’s prospects against the Euro and the Dollar after a strong summer showing

Currency Clips

The British Pound has been rather resilient in its price action during the summer time. At the same time, the performance of the domestic economy has been rather lackluster. Nevertheless, the Pound has been able to largely hold on its own....show more

FX professionals rush to meet MIFID II requirements

Market Commentary

The European regulation will take effect on January 3rd 2018, and FX professionals are under pressure to create or acquire the technology needed to provide an un-paralleled level of detail on where, why and how they executed their trades....show more

The Value of eFX Bank Streams

e-FX Industry Report

Mainstream and industry press have written widely on the gradual withdrawal of banks—the traditional primary liquidity providers—from the spot FX markets over the past few years....show more

Currency derivatives on digital platforms - Electronic Forwards and Options bring new trading opportunities

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

Financial markets have become more electronically traded over the years, and seen non-traditional participants become important liquidity providers as a result. However, currency derivatives have taken a longer road to automation and efficiency. But market participants feel that areas such as FX options and non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) are ripe for further electronification....show more

Wells Fargo - Offering clients unrivalled FX expertise, top class technology, and comprehensive operational support

Provider Profile

e-Forex talks with Steve Godfrey, Managing Director, Head of Foreign Exchange eCommerce, Wells Fargo Securities....show more

Special FX - Expert practitioners discuss the use of execution algorithms

Algorithmic FX Trading

Anna Reitman talks with leading providers to discuss how a new generation of FX algorithms, analytical toolsets and order routing solutions are giving clients more control over the way that their orders are placed, as well as access to more detailed pre- and post-trade analysis than has ever been possible before....show more

Saxo Markets - Talking with an FX pacesetter

e-Forex Interview

Saxo Bank Group was established in 1992 and was one of the first financial institutions to develop an online trading platform that provided ordinary investors with the same tools and market access as professional traders, large institutions and fund managers. The firm is a leader in electronic trading services and its goal has always been to democratize investment and trading by providing access to global financial markets and cutting-edge technologies. e-Forex talks with Neil Browning Executive Director, Global Head of FX Sales at the firm to learn more about its Retail and Institutional offerings and plans for the future....show more

Unbundled Services: Credit and Liquidity - Old Problems, New Solutions

Expert Opinion

One of the things that makes FX a truly unique market is both its scale and the diversity of the market participants that operate within it. Asset managers, corporates, international banks, regional and mid-tier banks, hedge funds and prop trading firms from all around the world have a real need to access the wholesale FX market....show more

FX on Exchanges Raising the bar

FX on Exchanges

As global derivatives exchanges continue to see growth in volumes, Frances Faulds looks at how the exchanges are raising the stakes and responding to the needs of the OTC market....show more

Hybrid IT - The answer to FX volatility

Expert Opinion

To say that the FX market has been more volatile than usual after the Brexit vote last year is probably an understatement. Add to that recent UK and US political uncertainty and a barrage of incoming regulation, and we’ve seen the value of Sterling to the US Dollar and the Euro experience a roller coaster ride – from soaring highs to crashing lows. ...show more

Leveraging a key - strategic asset Extracting more actionable insights from FX data

Special Report

Nicholas Pratt talks to a range of market players and providers to discover what steps both sell side and buyside FX trading firms can take to develop more effective enterprise wide data strategies....show more

FXecosystem strengthens service offerings

Sponsored Statement

e-Forex spoke to James Banister, CEO, FXecosystem a leading provider of institutional and retail FX outsourced connectivity services about business expansion, VPS and network monitoring. ...show more

Blockchain comes to the boil

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

William Essex reports about some very interesting times in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space....show more

A currency for keeping score

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Neverdie has just (end-August) completed the ICO for the Teleport Token, a cryptocurrency for use across virtual reality. Users will be able to earn, win or mine Teleport Tokens or purchase them from other players and use the coins to pay for content or travel throughout multiple worlds. The ICO raised the real-world sum of $6 million (in a dual Neverdie/Teleport ICO). William Essex spoke to Jon Jacobs, CEO, Neverdie, about the real-world significance of a virtual cryptocurrency....show more

Mine, all mine

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Dave Carlson , founder and CEO, Giga Watt is a former FX trader and Microsoft engineer. Now, he’s selling tokens that give mining rights to multiple cryptocurrencies at below market price. Interested? William Essex finds out more....show more

Turnkey cryptocurrency liquidity solutions for Retail FX Brokers

FX Brokerage Operations

With Bitcoin, Ethereum and other crypto coins so prevalent in major news publications, more retail FX brokers are inquiring, discussing and shifting their attention to this exciting new asset class. Alexander Nekritin, Managing Director of Nekstream Global, analyzes this phenomenon that is sure to change the landscape of the online trading world....show more

The future of margin crypto trading

Viewpoint

It really is the Wild West at the moment with seemingly hundreds of “crypto exchanges” popping up everywhere, all with the “Nirvana” of offerings, but the difference between these exchanges and traditional exchanges (also known as RIEs, or Recognised Investment Exchanges) is vast....show more

How custom trading platforms boost your sales

Expert Opinion

A popular business model among technology providers is to develop and sell a trading platform as a universal product. It comes with great benefits for both the vendor and the client: cost, time-to-market, well-recognized and time tested solution. The main argument against such universal solutions from the point of view of a broker is clear: no - or too little - differentiation. But there are some implications coming from the product universality that are less obvious....show more

A matter of pedigree - Finding the right CFD Liquidity providers to grow your business

FX Brokerage Operations

Nicholas Pratt sets out to discover what are the key attributes of leading CFD liquidity providers and what are their clients looking for. ...show more

CFH Clearing looks to increase global market share

Sponsored Statement

Matthew Maloney, CFH Clearing’s new CEO talks to e-Forex about his role at the helm of the rapidly growing Prime of Prime brokerage....show more

One Stop Shop PoPs - Investing Wisely in the Power of Next Generation FX Prime of Prime Brokers

FX Brokerage Operations

One of the most dynamic and innovative areas in FX market structure continues to be the prime of prime sector. But in what ways is this varied sector starting to mature, while also continuing to meet the complex demands of customers, prime brokers and global regulators? Nicola Tavendale writes....show more

Stater Global Markets One Year On

Sponsored Statement

London-based FCA regulated Prime of Prime brokerage, Stater Global Markets has made a significant impact since launching one year ago to offer liquidity, clearing and technology to institutional clients. e-Forex talks to Stater’s CEO, Ramy Soliman to find out about the firm’s success to date and future plans....show more

Gearing up for the Future - Harnessing the power of customised development services for the MetaTrader 5 Platform

FX Brokerage Operations

Since MetaQuotes added hedging features to its MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform last year, the FX industry is increasingly seeing the transition from MT4 as a viable, if not vital, option. But just how are leading technology vendors supporting this move and what is driving the development of MT5 toolsets one year on? Nicola Tavendale writes....show more

The 5 most common misconceptions made by Risk Management teams

Sponsored Statement

The single most challenging and the most important task a broker has is managing their risk, according to Jeff Wilkins, Managing Director, IS Risk Analytics....show more

Financial Extranets - Reducing the cost and complexity of FX connectivity

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Financial extranets’ place in the fabric of the global currency trading landscape are set to grow in importance amid an FX market structure evolving towards greater levels of complexity. As buy and sell side firms navigate fragmenting liquidity across FX markets that are increasingly interconnected, financial extranets are providing a technological fix that fewer firms can do without. Joe Morgan investigates....show more

Reducing barriers to entry - New network and hosting solutions for ultra low latency FX trading

Networks, Hosting and Connectivity

Dan Barnes discovers what network reliability, resilience and security issues need to be considered to safeguard mission critical FX trading operations and the benefits of working with connectivity providers who can offer hardware consultancy, procurement, build, installation and ongoing technical support as an integrated package....show more

CFH Clearing wins Best Liquidity Provider award

Awards

For the fourth consecutive year, CFH Clearing has been named Best Liquidity Provider at the Finance Magnates Awards 2017. ...show more

Gold-i crowned Best Cryptocurrency Solution Provider

Awards

Also at the Finance Magnates Awards 2017, Gold-i was named Best Cryptocurrency Solution Provider. ...show more

Why the ECB could Be Hawkish

Currency Clips

The Eurozone has come a long way from its early days of crisis and its economy has strengthened in almost all countries. For instance, the economic momentum is accelerating at a pace not seen since November 2011. This is despite the fact we have seen enormous amount of political unrest and investors’ confidence wobbled several times over this period. ...show more

A Brexit negotiations breakthrough but the real struggle for the pound now begins

Currency Clips

December has been a ‘hot’ month for the pound with volatility directly linked to progress in the Brexit negotiations. Every time the headlines reported a positive development the British currency rallied only to retreat again when new obstacles came to light. The price action was capped within a narrow range between 1.33 and 1.3550, with the quick changes of direction making investors wonder whether this is a market to make profits, or one which is better to better stay away from....show more

Trimming of the Fed’s optimism

Currency Clips

Contrary to 2016, 2017 has been worrisome for bond investors as the steady flattening of the yield curve offers little returns, while the narrowing spread between short and long term Treasuries seems to agonise many analysts too with their 2018 outlooks; a heavy unwavering concern since the 30-10 Year US Yield Spread plummeted to 0.38% only recently, a 2007 record low....show more

Bitcoin, Doomsday Preppers, Grandpa Joe’s Thanksgiving and all in between

Currency Clips

When I was kindly asked to write this article I knew what to write but not necessarily the graphic to accompany it....show more

Taking the first steps towards a new market structure - Assessing the impact of MiFID II and the FX Global Code

Regulations & Compliance

Looking back, 2017 will be seen as a watershed year for the FX market. After a year of deliberation, the FX Global Code (“the Code”) was published on May 25th and a new Global FX Committee (GFXC) was formed in order to promote and maintain the Code, putting standards and principles into the spot FX market for the first time on a truly global scale. ...show more

NatWest Markets: Agile Markets platform

Platform Profile

When e-Forex interviewed John Quayle, Head of FX Algo Execution, NatWest Markets, to learn about the scope and scale of its Agile Markets platform, it quickly became clear that this state-of-the-art, single dealer offering addressed the complete waterfront of NatWest Markets’ customers’ FX needs from pre- to post-trade. Its range of functionality, its flexibility and future-proofed advanced technology marks it out as a likely significant feature in the e-FX landscape for some time to come. This is what we learned....show more

Execution Analytics - Helping FX trading firms to take more informed decisions

Trading Operations

If best execution is the goal, then helping prove it is the mandate of TCA providers. And for FX markets, measuring execution performance is an activity that has yet to mature even as technology delivers more sophisticated tools. Anna Reitman investigates....show more

Liquidity, Independence, Analytics and Transparency - Why some Institutional FX ECNs still stand out from the crowd

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

Nicholas Pratt explores why Institutional FX ECNs are appealing to increasing numbers of trading firms many of whom value anonymity, low-latency and the ability to use special order types....show more

Solid FX – an ECN built from the ground up

FX e-Commerce and Platforms

The Solid FX ECN launched eight years ago in the Netherlands and was founded by Diego and José Baptista, two brothers with a background in FX and equity trading....show more

Spotlight: IS Prime’s Agency Execution business

Sponsored Statement

FCA regulated IS Prime is renowned for its breadth of services. In addition to being one of the fastest growing and most successful Prime of Prime brokerages, the firm also provides multi-asset execution across Tier 1 aggregated liquidity venues and has a highly reputable Agency Execution business which offers a compelling service to institutional clients. e-Forex talks to Chris Twort, who heads up IS Prime’s Agency Execution business, to find out more....show more

David Mercer at LMAX Exchange - Speaking with a devout exchange evangelist

e-Forex Interview

e-Forex talks with David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange, about proving the exchange execution model as a better, more transparent and fair alternative to trade FX....show more

Cobalt closes in on Q1 launch

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Founded in 2015 with the audacious vision of re-engineering post-trade FX using distributed ledger technology, Cobalt has partnered with key participants including Citi, XTX Markets and Citadel. As the company prepares to launch its service in the coming months, e-Forex talks to co-founder and chief executive Andy Coyne about Cobalt’s journey so far and its ambitions for the future....show more

R3 grows more ambitious as its network widens

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Launched by FX industry veteran David Rutter, R3 now operates in nine countries with 140 staff and is aiming to re-build the operating system for the financial services industry through a series of partnerships. e-Forex talks to head of external affairs Charley Cooper about the strengths of R3’s Corda platform and the potential of distributed ledger technology in FX and beyond....show more

OTC Exchange Network Breaking new ground in Forex

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

In a recent edition of CIOReview, the publishers presented a list of the “20 Most Promising Blockchain Technology Solution Providers – 2017.” Included in the list was OTC Exchange Network. This is what the magazine had to say about them....show more

Getting to grips with ICOs

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

William Essex explores whether or not blockchain-based tokenised liquidity platforms will justify the “hype” and disrupt the traditional retail FX-trading model....show more

A-Z of Blockchain

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

In this our first article exploring the concepts behind Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies, Simon Taylor, Co-Founder and Blockchain Lead at 11:FS, focuses on Smart Contracts....show more

View from the Top: Stater Global Markets

Sponsored Statement

e-Forex talks with Ramy Soliman, CEO, Stater Global Markets...show more

Australasia: An e-FX market in transition

Regional eFX Perspective

Electronic FX trading in Australasia is adapting and changing fast. The drivers for this are both local and global and insistent demands from both institutional and corporate buy-side clients are principal factors reports Richard Willsher. ...show more

Retail trading set for a boost

Regional eFX Perspective

New Client Money Reporting Rules coming into effect next year, may boost confidence among Australian retail FX traders....show more

FX Aggregation - Offering access to better liquidity and execution quality

ALGOFX LAB

With David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies...show more

Collaboration, Cost and Complexity - Work continues on modernising Post Trade FX

Special Report

The FX market has always dealt with fragmentation and complexity but, as Frances Faulds asks, in order to modernise, does the industry need a wholly new model?...show more

TradeTech: Transforming the Retail FX Industry

Sponsored Statement

Playtech Plc’s acquisition of CFH Clearing and Alpha Capital Markets has resulted in the biggest and most ambitious consolidation to have taken place in the retail FX industry. The strength of Playtech’s financial division, TradeTech Group, is unparalleled in the sector. Its B2B solutions include multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services, liquidity and risk management tools in addition to the division’s proprietary trading platform, CRM and back office systems, risk management and dealing services. e-Forex talks to senior representatives from across the organisation to find out how TradeTech is transforming the client experience....show more

Reducing the IT burden - Discover what White Labelling services can offer your brand

ALGOFX LAB

The rapid evolution of the FX space has continued unabated over the past year while demand for cutting edge trading technology remains strong. In turn, the White Labelling model has undergone some profound changes to keep up with the pace of change – even branching out into new services, asset classes and geographies. Nicola Tavendale writes....show more

Meeting exponential demand Delivering FX Liquidity, Risk and Technology services across APAC markets

FX Brokerage Operations

Joe Morgan reports on how increasing levels of disposable income and a culture of speculation is spurring exponential demand for retail FX trading services across Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets....show more

How to maximise Cryptocurrency opportunities

ALGOFX LAB

Having been crowned Best Cryptocurrency Service Provider at the Finance Magnates awards, Gold-i is leading the way in helping brokers worldwide to offer cryptocurrencies to their clients. e-Forex talks to Gold-i’s CEO, Tom Higgins about the ‘cryptocraze.’...show more

Tackling the liquidity crisis with CMC Markets

ALGOFX LAB

The harsh reality is, that in the absence of good liquidity, markets will be far from efficient. The client experience will be poor and counterparties are going to be working even harder to find profitability. ...show more

Retail trading in China - Some thoughts about IBs and the market

Expert Opinion

Everyone understands and is aware that the retail FX business in China is 99% conducted via the IB. The majority of brokers provide all the necessary tools, features, products, rebates, commissions, marketing camp’s, gifts, etc., oriented to attract, keep and satisfy their IBs. Their entire business model is based around IBs. For example at BMFN we have over 10,000 IBs and we have developed all the tools and automated them in order to assist our IB partners....show more

Emerging Market connectivity - The key to capturing new FX trading opportunities

ALGOFX LAB

Reaching natural liquidity when trading EM currency pairs requires a connectivity provider that has the resilience and reach to provide access regardless of local environment as Dan Barnes discovers....show more

Blockchain around the world

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Blockchain around the world...show more

Dollar running on borrowed time as Fed dangle keys to rate cut

Currency Clips

King Dollar’s iron throne will be under threat during the second half of 2019 as expectations intensify over the Federal Reserve embarking on a monetary policy easing cycle....show more

The Euro climbed to 1.1412 but Eurozone uncertainty dampens growth

Currency Clips

Moving into the start of Q3 of the current financial year, the low point - as we can see in our previous analysis back in the start of May 2019 - according to our estimations has been reached (1.11) and the pair has since changed its trend and seems to be rather bullish as the Euro managed to break above significant resistance and psychological levels after two consecutive upward rallies, currently trading around the 1.1330 level, having first reached 1.1412....show more

Yen loses gains amidst mixed fundamentals

Currency Clips

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has twice avoided raising the consumption tax, quoting domestic and international economic uncertainties. This time however, despite mixed economic signals and the tax’s unpopularity among voters. Abe appears determined to go ahead with raising the tax. His administration last month approved an annual economic plan confirming the hike in order to cover spreading social security costs....show more

Aussie Dollar advances but stoppers are imminent

Currency Clips

The Australian Dollar advanced after the latest official figures cast China’s economy in a resilient light despite the ongoing trade spat with the US. This helped to boost sentiment toward all risk-sensitive assets and leave the Aussie well placed. However constant global rate cut discussions could be about to put the stoppers on the potential for long term upside....show more

The smiling family on the train is not paying in USD

Market Commentary

Much has already been said on the topic of Belt and Road and its affect on the global economy moving forward. There is also debate on, if and when the UK will join other European nations in adopting the grand project officially. One thing that cannot be denied is the important role that London will play as the place to make all of the financial arrangements happen....show more

Is there a case for a shared / utility platform approach in today’s FX market?

Trading Operations

David Woolcock explains why we can expect to see a bright future for shared co-operative platforms in FX....show more

SIBOS London 23-26 Sep 2019

SIBOS 2019

Welcome to our special Sibos 2019 FX Report. This year Sibos is taking place in London and the conference theme – thriving in a hyper-connected world – recognises the challenges, and opportunities that mass digitisation and data-driven relationships present for the Sibos community....show more

The FX sellside is challenged by changing structural dynamics

SIBOS 2019

In 2019, the wholesale FX market is not the market of yore. Formerly, the defining characteristic of the currencies trading landscape was liquidity fragmentation and siloed pools of cash held within geography-specific currency pairings. Following the financial crisis, commercial, regulatory, trading technology costs management and technological advancement pressures eroded the broker-dealer centric market structure in liquid instruments, paving the way for new, exchange-like all-to-all (A2A) market structures within the leading liquidity centres. ...show more

FX Markets: the balancing act between direct regulation, new technology and principles-based supervision

SIBOS 2019

With more than 2,000 asset managers and corporates already using the SWIFT network to confirm their FX trades with and through banks as well as FX platforms and non-bank liquidity providers, SWIFT users can adopt and implement the principles of the FX Global Code in their day-to-day business without incurring significant cost. An asset manager’s use of SWIFT, for example, could itself facilitate alignment with up to 14 of the Code’s 55 principles. Nevertheless, many buyside firms have still not signed up to the Code. eForex spoke to Galina Dimitrova, Director for Investment and Capital Markets at The Investment Association, to discover buyside attitudes to the Code....show more

RegTech in FX Seizing the opportunity

SIBOS 2019

FX market participants have traditionally approached technological solutions for regulatory compliance as a series of tactical projects where the goal is to implement the minimally viable solution in the shortest possible time frame. Given the rapid pace of regulatory change in the past few years, it is easy to see why many institutions have built infrastructure that is regional, siloed by asset class and product, reliant on manual processes, and expensive to update. Here we ask Jeff Heine, Chief Revenue Officer at Ascent RegTech to tell us more about how RegTech can help FX trading firms overcome many of the issues associated with tackling regulatory growth....show more

Exploring the history and key focus of the BIS Triennial Survey

SIBOS 2019

Earlier this year the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) launched the 12th Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Over-The-Counter (OTC) Derivatives Markets. Conducted every three years since 1986, the Triennial Survey is the most comprehensive source of information on the size and structure of global foreign exchange and OTC derivatives markets. It aims to help central banks, other authorities and market participants monitor developments in OTC markets and inform discussions about reforms to OTC markets. As we await the preliminary results for turnover which are due to be published by the BIS in September 2019 we asked Andreas Schrimpf, Principal Economist, Secretary to the Markets Committee at the BIS to give us a little background information about the survey and its history....show more

SWIFT works to unlock the value from its FX data

SIBOS 2019

Robust and reliable data is a core requirement for participation in FX markets at any level and in any capacity. But where can such data be sourced in sufficient depth and in real-enough time to hold its value through any transactional or analytic requirement? e-Forex spoke to Juliette Kennel, Head of Securities and FX Markets, SWIFT, and Sam Romilly, Head of FX New Business Development, Capital Market, SWIFT, who can answer that question. ...show more

The role of independent data in meeting regulatory obligations and helping to manage FX costs

ALGOFX LAB

It is important that asset managers are asked to measure their FX transactions against independent data to eliminate any accidental flattering of FX costs by managers. Once the costs are determined it is then a relatively simple task to begin managing them. The most important thing to recognise is that paying too much for FX, delivers no additional benefit for buyside firms whatsoever. It’s simply a drain on their portfolios. e-Forex spoke with Andy Woolmer, CEO of New Change FX, the award winning FX data company to learn more about measuring and managing FX costs....show more

FX Market Data: Overcoming the challenges and unlocking the potential

SIBOS 2019

It has become critical for increasing numbers of institutions across the FX market to have access to accurate market data to meet the growing focus on internal risk and control processes, regulatory compliance and the need to drive market analysis and profitable trading decisions. In today’s competitive FX landscape, gaining and rapidly actioning insight into execution quality and operational efficiency are seen as key to gaining a trading performance advantage. We asked Louis Lovas, Director of Solutions at OneMarketData to provide some perspectives....show more

Improving liquidity management – can the industry rise to the challenge?

SIBOS 2019

Effective liquidity management - and in particular, the management of intra-day liquidity - is a high priority for banks. It’s also a focus for regulators. Why is this, and how can banks respond cost-effectively, compliantly, and above all in ways that enhance their competitive edge with clients? e-Forex went to Angus Scott, Head of Product, CLS Group, for the answers....show more

Exploring the shifting ecology of FX Liquidity and future role of banks as providers.

SIBOS 2019

e-Forex talks to Dmitry Ilyaev, Head of eFX and Spot Trading at Commerzbank...show more

How are people changing their FX workflows to prepare for the next digital age?

SIBOS 2019

Seamless, end-to-end trading efficiency from front-end execution to back-office processing has been a core objective of all FX market participants for many years. Direct connectivity between platforms and FX risk managers is now a reality, thanks to recent innovation in APIs and the broad adoption of connectivity standards. These in turn have enabled FX pricing and transactions to be embedded directly within client workflows - so that even simple processes, from making payments to settling invoices all the way to complex balance-sheet management, can have embedded FX capabilities. But will today’s plethora of established technology providers in the eFX workflow space - delivering services including confirmation matching, aggregation, compression, reconciliation and settlement - be replaced by APIs and other new digital technologies? As innovation continues, are we close to real-time cross-border FX payments? e-Forex spoke to David Leigh, global head of FX spot and electronic trading at Deutsche Bank, to find out what the future holds....show more

How to reduce post-trade costs in FX

SIBOS 2019

Unlike the equity markets, post-trade processing in FX is disjointed. Multiple vendors and market infrastructures compete to message, match, confirm, aggregate, clear, net, credit-check, novate, compress, allocate, reconcile, settle and report trades. Legacy technologies and bespoking of services cause multiple reconciliations which necessitate high levels of manual intervention. As a result, costs and risks are indefensibly high. To discuss how to make post-trade more efficient, SWIFT invited a group of experts to an on-line discussion. Sam Romilly, head of FX new business development at SWIFT, shares with e-Forex what he learned from the discussion....show more

Harnessing the benefits of more automated FX trade lifecycle operations

SIBOS 2019

FX markets are unique not only in their scale but also in their complexity. There are multiple trading paradigms, and also multiple venues where trades may be executed. The FX eco-system is highly fragmented and the case for more automation – more automated FX-trade-lifecycle processes and procedures – has been clear for some time. And yet, automation hasn’t happened yet. Why not, and when will it happen? eForex spoke to Steve French, Head of Connectivity and Messaging for Traiana, about the challenges to automation, its benefits, and the key steps that firms should take on their journey towards implementing automation....show more

FinTech and its role in the future-proofing of FX

SIBOS 2019

Where do we invest next? For FX-market participants working towards digital transformation, one of the simplest challenges is also the greatest: technology doesn’t stop evolving. The flagship investment of today might be the legacy system of the day after tomorrow. William Essex discusses the future-proofing of FX....show more

Technology - Key to transforming the emerging market payments landscape

SIBOS 2019

Crown Agents Bank (CAB) has been a trusted partner to frontier market central banks and financial institutions for decades with a unique expertise in these markets. Serving a wide network of partners across Africa, the Caribbean, parts of Asia and the Pacific islands CAB now offers a range of solutions encompassing foreign exchange, international payments, pensions and payroll payments and trade finance. We talked to Steven Marshall (Chief Commercial Officer) and Colin Digby (Head of Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions) at the firm to discover what factors are influencing the fast-developing payments landscape across the emerging markets (EM’s) and what role technology will be playing here in the future....show more

OTCXN – showing us the power of the Blockchain in action

SIBOS 2019

OTC Exchange Network (OTCXN) is a global liquidity aggregation and exchange platform for both digital and traditional assets. All trading, clearing, settlement and lending on their network is powered by proprietary blockchain technology which the firm developed specifically for institutional trading. We asked OTCXN’s CEO, Rosario Ingargiola to tell us more about this....show more

FXTM: A leading financial trading provider that won’t waste your time

e-Forex Interview

The FXTM brand was initially launched in 2011 with a vision to provide superior trading conditions, advanced education and state-of-the-art trading tools for the retail forex industry. Since then the company has grown rapidly around the world winning many awards along the way. Its client centric-business model has been successfully built around high standards of customer service and a continuous focus on tailoring its products to suit specific markets. e-Forex spoke with CEO, Nicholas Defteras, to learn more about how his firm operates and what makes it different from many others in the space....show more

Reviewing the Mobile Trading apps landscape

FX Brokerage Operations

As we approach the end of the second decade of the 21st Century, FX and Crypto trading continues to be a buoyant business sector. In this article the founder of mobile trading app specialist MTP LLP, Paul G. Smith, examines the current state of the art for mobile access to trading systems. There is no longer any question about whether or not a broker needs a mobile presence, the only question is - what should that mobile presence be? However, this article is not going to be so relevant to white label “broker in a box” scenarios, in which the micro-broker does not have any control over its operational or technical infrastructure....show more

Gold-i accelerates development of Matrix

Sponsored Statement

Following recent announcements about the expansion of Gold-i’s development team, e-Forex spoke to Chris James, Chief Technology Officer at Gold-i to find out more about the innovative FinTech company’s current product development focus and future plans....show more

Prime of Primes: Well placed to meet the evolving needs of the global FX market

FX Brokerage Operations

With over a decade having elapsed since the 2008 financial crisis, Natallia Hunik takes a look back over the past 10 years of the FX Prime Brokerage business and outlines why the growth of Prime of Primes looks set to continue....show more

Technological advancements in retail trader platforms

Retail FX trading

In a digital age there’s no surprise that most our time is spent on smart phones. Smart phone statistics have rocketed over the past 5 years with now over 70% of people within the UK and USA owning a smart phone. Has the rise in accessible technology made it easier for retail Forex traders to trade or has it made it even more confusing? That’s what we’re here to tackle....show more

Moving towards a more resilient FX market

Leader

After the first 45 days of the pandemic, it’s clear that the capital markets met volatility and turbulence with resilience. As we take stock of this new environment, the conversation will shift to how we recover and adapt....show more

NDF Trading: Taking it to the next level

e-FX Industry Report

Over the better part of the past 15 years, most of the innovation in the foreign exchange (FX) market has been dedicated to spot transactions, which benefitted from electronification, automation, and algorithmic trading....show more

How pension funds and PvP preview the evolution of operational resiliency after Covid-19

Market Commentary

While the full effect of Coronavirus (Covid-19) remains to be seen, its impact is already unprecedented, creating challenges for companies across sectors on a global scale. For financial services, the pandemic is highlighting the importance of operational resilience, a priority that will continue to be a focal point well beyond the lifecycle of the pandemic. ...show more

The evolution of clearing and FX market structure

Viewpoint

Following on from our roundtable feature earlier this year, which focussed on some of the complexities and current models of FX clearing, we asked Kah Yang Chong, Head of ForexClear Product, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at LCH to give us his views on how the clearing landscape is likely to evolve further....show more

Why cloud based e-FX platforms offer an increasingly compelling proposition

e-Forex Roundtable

Reduced costs, flexible design, high reliability and ultra low latency: Why cloud based e-FX platforms offer an increasingly compelling proposition...show more

Automated FX Trading: Getting beyond the buzz

Trading Operations

Lots of buy side firms are talking about FX automation right now, but what does it mean when this talk turns into action? Sebastian Hofmann-Werther, Head of EMEA at 360T, explains....show more

FXSpotStream - perfectly placed to capitalize on the growing shift in FX trading preferences

e-Forex Interview

FXSpotStream which was formed in 2011 is a subsidiary of LiquidityMatch, the bank owned consortium operating as a market utility. e-Forex spoke to their Co-founder & CEO Alan F. Schwarz, about the company’s continued growth and how it is ideally placed to take advantage of the latest trends that are influencing the FX market....show more

White Labelled FX Platforms: An old story with a new ending

Trading & Technology Clinic

By Fabrice Benouaich, Finastra, Director, Product Management SeamlessFX and Guillaume Spay, Finastra, Director, Global Solutions, Treasury and Capital Markets. ...show more

Security, compliance, and access to liquidity: Meeting requirements for top class cryptocurrency custodial services

Blockchain and CryptoCurrencies

Fund managers are increasingly interested in the benefits that crypto could offer their portfolios, however this requires the value of those assets be custodied and safeguarded much in the same way traditional assets are.  ...show more

Broker checklist: What to request from your bridge solution

Expert Opinion

Albina Zhdanova, COO at Tools for Brokers explores what to request from your bridge solution...show more

Business Intelligence toolsets for FX brokers: Moving from nice to have to must have

FX Brokerage Operations

The uptake of Business Intelligence software amongst FX brokers has traditionally been quite low – from what I’ve seen, they are probably only used by around 20% of brokers worldwide. So why is the figure so low......show more

Gold outlook: demand to rise as global debt soars to unprecedented levels

Currency Clips

The price of gold has moved relatively sideways in the past thirty days as the market continued to focus on the reopening of the world economy. Investors have also been focusing on the actions of central banks including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank...show more

Product Launch

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Viewpoint

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